Re: 2024 Season Grand Prix Megathread

@ScarDuck14 However having a wonderful track layout, the tires allowed a great and really fun race.
I heard in The Race podcast (or was a brazilian one?) that sector 1 was heavy on tire temps if pushed too hard. Lando managed it brilliantly.
I also think that having one FP allows a higher chance of a given team not getting the write setup and, well, too bad for RB and congrats to McL for delivering such a result as a team - Piastri also had the pace, at least in his 1st stint.

@dancrodriguesAnd Pastry only had half the upgrades Lando had…. So never fear @TheRagebeard When Lando wins his second race at Imola. That will become the GOAT. and Miami will just be a car park. Although for me personally Imola. Has always been one of my favourites.

@ScarDuck14 Who needs Monaco and all that real harbor nonsense when you can have a 3D printed one set up in the parking lot of your local football stadium? To be fair, what it lacks in glitz and glamour it does make up for in practicality....

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@dancrodrigues wrote:

@ScarDuck14 However having a wonderful track layout, the tires allowed a great and really fun race.

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Saw plenty of reports of drivers complaining about the tyres in Miami, how erratic it all felt. Like how you would push only 1% more in a given corner and have them sliding all over, increasing surface temps and a compounding issue as the sliding just gets worse and worse. Temperature spike, less grip, more unanticipated sliding, more temperature spiking... Rinse and repeat.

Cue in drivers improving on S1 but spiraling out on S2 and S3.

I've only now caught whiff of the reasons for that. According to Pirelli, the promoters power washed the track and that resulted in a significant change to the micro roughness of the tarmac. This:

They were not expecting such a change in track texture.

Stella also praised Norris. He said Lando at first decided to conserve tyres as he did not believe he had enough of a pace advantage to overtake Perez on track. When he heard about Piastri's feats at the front, he decided to switch gears (🤭) and push, firmly believing he had even more untapped potential in that upgraded than the limited testing in FP showed. 

But Stella giveth and Stella taketh away. He's confident McLaren will be fighting for wins against Red Bull, that they're just one major upgrade package away from that... And that it will probably happen next season 🙃

I'm a McLaren fanboy for all the obvious reasons ⬜🟥🟡🟢🟡⬜🟥, and I'm realistically expecting Ferrari and Macca to wrangle the occasional/opportunistic win away from Red Bull in this very season, but I'll tamper my expectations. This year will still count as one more season in the peak of Verstappen's reign.