Hamilton's long stint at Catalunya

[Abnash24]

Interesting fact i just calculated:
Lewis Hamiltons 31 lap stint on a set of tyres covered 89.652 miles which it the 2nd longest stint ever on Pirelli tyres
First is Sergio Perez's debut 35 lap run in Melbourne 2011-109.34 miles though Melbourne as a track is a lot easier on its tyres
Goin by this i think Lewis' stint is more impressive considering how he was overtaking and the circuit is quite a bit of a tyre eater. Also after watching Sergio Perez's run in Melbounre today i noticed he didnt do much but block people so Lewis' run is more impressive
Actually Perez wasnt classified for that race so i think that technically makes Hamilton the longest ever modern Pirelli stint runner ever.

 

[downforce]

That surprises me, I thought the stints were getting to be that long in the 2nd half of 2011

 

[Abnash24]

i thought the same and i looked into it but couldnt find anyone doing that much. Maximum was around 25 laps

 

[Brogan]

Abnash24 We've got the data in the OTDB (Overtaking Database) so I'm just checking with Mike to see if there's an easy way to query the top five longest stints.

 

[Brogan]

i thought the same and i looked into it but couldnt find anyone doing that much. Maximum was around 25 laps

Mike has run the data and it looks like there are quite a few longer than Hamilton's stint.

I won't post it here as it's off topic for the thread. It's probably worthy of a new thread in the stat's forum as the data could prove to be quite interesting for comparing drivers, circuits and compounds from last year to this.

 

[downforce]

Interesting fact i just calculated:
Lewis Hamiltons 31 lap stint on a set of tyres covered 89.652 miles which it the 2nd longest stint ever on Pirelli tyres
First is Sergio Perez's debut 35 lap run in Melbourne 2011

Didn't Vettel do something like 40+ laps in Monaco last year?

 

[Brogan]

See my post two up downforce

Even so, 40 laps around Monaco is only 83 miles.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

downforce

From my memory i think Sebastian Vettel pitted on lap 25 of the Monaco GP. There was 5 laps remaining i think when that huge shunt happened. By my calculation Vettel did about 48 laps on one set of tyres alone in last years race.

 

[Brogan]

Vettel pitted on lap 16 and the race was red flagged on lap 72, so that makes 56 laps.

It's off topic for this thread though so we're going to start a new on in the stat's forum once we've parsed the data.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Brogan

WOW just wow, making tyre's last that long in this F1 era is just amazing.

 

[Brogan]

Monaco is a very low speed, low downforce circuit though, and it's virtually impossible to pass on, so it's not as impressive as it sounds.

 

[Slyboogy]

Still impressive.

 

[Brogan]

Not as impressive as Mark Webber's 28 lap stint at Spa, covering 196 kilometres.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Yes, Webber's run at Spa seems much more impressive to me. Vettel did his on the shortest circuit, with the highest amount of downforce and the lowest cornering speeds. Still Webber's run was on the 2011 tyres and was he even on the Hard tyre?, basically any comparison between Hamilton's and Webber's sttints is pretty pointless.

 

[teabagyokel]

Not sure Vettel can be said to have 'preserved' his tyres at Monaco. He was slowing down, he was just taking a risk that might have seen him in a wall if it weren't for the stoppage.

 

[tranquility2k9]

Monaco is a very low speed, low downforce circuit though, and it's virtually impossible to pass on, so it's not as impressive as it sounds.

Monaco is a high downforce circuit - not low downforce. It's probably higher downforce than any other circuit on the calender as there's no real straights and it's all about cornering, grip and traction. Sorry to pick up on a little thing like this, but I assume it was a mistake in your post. Traditionally, teams would bring special high-downforce packages for Monaco and low-downforce packages for Monza.

Check this:- http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2009/5/9363.html

Specifically:- Aerodynamics
"Monaco demands the highest downforce levels of the season. Contrary to popular belief, the primary benefit does not come in the corners, as many of them are taken at such low speeds that mechanical grip is of greater importance. Rather, the gains from high downforce come under braking and acceleration, keeping the car stable into the corners and ensuring optimum traction on the exit."

 

[Brogan]

Yes of course, I meant the opposite of what I said.

Absent minded typo.

 

[Abnash24]

Its all comes to down to factors like, tyre compounds, if the track was green, how hard is the circuit on tyres, types of corners, safety cars ect.

 

[jez101]

While Lewis' numbers were quite good on Sunday, he really did baby the tyres to get that long out of them. He was over 2s/lap slower than Maldonado's pace and the Williams went nearly as long.

What Lewis, Vettel and Grosjean managed to do was to make the tyre a lot faster on its 20th lap by going 2s slower on the first few out of the pits. Perez did the opposite, he hammered the first few laps after his puncture gave him clear air and a brand new set of hard tyres and was suffering by the 10th lap from that approach.

I think Sergio, more than any other driver at the moment understands these tyres the best. He can play it both ways - switch them on and go hot, or softly softly and make them do 5-10 laps more. For me the best tyre management performance would have been his debut race at Melbourne last year. Vettel's laps at Monaco last year were the biggest shock though but what was shocking was that there was virtually no deg on the soft tyres that day.

I think Lewis enjoyed shoing everyone that he could do it if he wanted to but he would not have driven like that if he'd started at the front.

See this year's tyre analysis:
http://cliptheapex.com/threads/2012-formula-one-pirelli-tyre-analysis.4723/page-3

And last year's for the ongoing "who manages their tyres best" debate
http://cliptheapex.com/threads/2011-formula-one-pirelli-tyre-analysis.4315/

 

[Abnash24]

Vettel at Monaco wasn't that impressive because sure he has a lot of downforce but how much is he using it? Maybe 5 corners of the lap. The hairpins, portiers, chicanes and everything from la piscine onwards is just driving slowly, barely damaging the tyres. Vettel also was going slowly, holding Alonso and Button up massively, just look at how fast the two caught up to vettel after their extra stops. Also remember that Monaco is the shortest circuit on the calendar and really a 50 lap stint equates to only 25 around albert park.
Mark Webbers stint in Belgium (28 laps) was very good even though he did have to slow down so his tyres didn't blister too much,a safety car and a relatively easy on tyres track to help him but this coming from a man who is nearly always first to pit (first person to make a pitstop for tyres in 2011) it certainetly is impressive.