Best Laps #8 - Silverstone

Best Lap Comparison - British GP 2009

Q: How does the best lap of the whole weekend (3 practice sessions, 3 qualifying
periods and the race) compare to the best lap of the weekend in 2008?

Here are two tables - one compares driver with driver; easy enough if the same
driver remains in the same team. If not we compare the 2008 driver with the guy
who replaced him.

Note: Honda has morphed into Brawn-Mercedes, while Force India have switched
from Ferrari to Mercedes power.

'S' is the session when the best lap was achieved (P1/P2/P3/Q1/Q2/Q3/R)
'Lps' are the total laps in all sessions
'Diff' is the gain/loss in seconds
'%Diff' is the difference in time as a percentage of the 2008 time

Negative Diff/%Diff mean that the driver/team improved. Positive means they got worse.

There can be several reasons for the variations seen.

[size=1]
2008 Team 2008 Driver S Lps Time 2009 Driver S Lps Time Diff. %Diff
=========================================================================================
[Honda] Barrichello P2 124 1'21.002 Barrichello Q2 152 1'18.335 -2.667 -3.29
Williams-Toyota Nakajima P2 129 1'20.985 Nakajima Q1 168 1'18.530 -2.455 -3.03
Toyota Trulli Q2 137 1'20.601 Trulli Q2 168 1'18.240 -2.361 -2.93
[Honda] Button P2 114 1'20.929 Button Q2 150 1'18.663 -2.266 -2.80
Williams-Toyota Rosberg P1 153 1'20.744 Rosberg Q2 175 1'18.591 -2.153 -2.67
Red Bull-Renault Coulthard Q2 72 1'20.174 Vettel Q2 155 1'18.119 -2.055 -2.56
Renault Alonso Q2 124 1'19.992 Alonso Q2 157 1'18.161 -1.831 -2.29
F India-[Ferrari] Sutil P2 87 1'21.756 Sutil Q1 147 1'19.909 -1.847 -2.26
F India-[Ferrari] Fisichella P2 116 1'21.565 Fisichella Q1 153 1'19.802 -1.763 -2.16
Red Bull-Renault Webber Q2 135 1'19.710 Webber Q2 147 1'18.209 -1.501 -1.88
Toyota Glock Q2 134 1'20.274 Glock Q2 173 1'18.791 -1.483 -1.85
Ferrari Räikkönen P1 144 1'19.948 Räikkönen Q2 162 1'18.566 -1.382 -1.73
Renault Piquet Q2 129 1'20.115 Piquet Q2 162 1'19.392 -0.723 -0.90
Ferrari Massa P1 120 1'19.575 Massa Q2 158 1'18.927 -0.648 -0.81
T Rosso-Ferrari Bourdais Q2 152 1'20.531 Bourdais Q1 123 1'19.898 -0.633 -0.79
BMW Sauber-BMW Kubica Q2 113 1'19.788 Kubica Q2 132 1'19.308 -0.480 -0.60
BMW Sauber-BMW Heidfeld Q2 152 1'19.802 Heidfeld Q2 157 1'19.448 -0.354 -0.44
McLaren-Mercedes Kovalainen P1 138 1'19.587 Kovalainen Q2 132 1'19.353 -0.234 -0.29
T Rosso-Ferrari   Vettel      Q2   96  1'20.109 Buemi       Q1  156 1'20.236 +0.127 +0.16
McLaren-Mercedes Hamilton Q2 131 1'19.537 Hamilton Q1 143 1'19.917 +0.380 +0.48
[/size]
Eighteen drivers set faster laps with only Buemi and Hamilton failing to do so.


The second table takes the best lap time from both drivers in each team and compares
with the equivalent team last season. Probably a better comparison.

[size=1]
2008 Team 2008 Driver S Lps Time 2009 Driver S Lps Time Diff. %Diff
=========================================================================================
[Honda] Button P2 238 1'20.929 Barrichello Q2 302 1'18.335 -2.594 -3.21
Williams-Toyota Rosberg P1 284 1'20.744 Nakajima Q1 343 1'18.530 -2.214 -2.74
Toyota Glock Q2 271 1'20.274 Trulli Q2 341 1'18.240 -2.034 -2.53
Renault Alonso Q2 253 1'19.992 Alonso Q2 319 1'18.161 -1.831 -2.29
F India-[Ferrari] Fisichella P2 203 1'21.565 Fisichella Q1 300 1'19.802 -1.763 -2.16
Red Bull-Renault Webber Q2 207 1'19.710 Vettel Q2 302 1'18.119 -1.591 -2.00
Ferrari Massa P1 264 1'19.575 Räikkönen Q2 320 1'18.566 -1.009 -1.27
BMW Sauber-BMW Kubica Q2 265 1'19.788 Kubica Q2 289 1'19.308 -0.480 -0.60
T Rosso-Ferrari Vettel Q2 248 1'20.109 Bourdais Q1 279 1'19.898 -0.211 -0.26
McLaren-Mercedes Hamilton Q2 269 1'19.537 Kovalainen Q2 275 1'19.353 -0.184 -0.23
[/size]

All 10 teams were quicker than in 2008.

Taking the positions of the teams in table 2 we can produce an average position for the season to date.

Team              R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8  Tot  Avg.
========================================================
1. Brawn-Mercedes 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 10 1.25
2. Red Bull-Renault 2 4 3 3 2 4 4 6 28 3.50
3. Williams-Toyota 3 2 4 6 3 7 2 2 29 3.62
4. F India-Mercedes 8 6 1 1 5 2 3 5 31 3.88
5. Toyota 4 3 5 7 4 9 5 3 40 5.00
6. Renault 5 5 6 4 8 5 6 4 43 5.38
7. T Rosso-Ferrari 10 7 8 5 6 3 7 9 55 6.88
8. Ferrari 6 9 9 10 7 6 9 7 63 7.88
9. BMW Sauber-BMW 7 8 7 9 9 10 8 8 66 8.25
10. McLaren-Mercedes 9 10 10 8 10 8 10 10 75 9.38
 
I was interested to see that Gary Anderson has a similar analysis in today's Autosport magazine.
He does refine it by using percentages - to allow for different lap lengths - and arrives at an
overall difference for the season so far:

Button                -1.055
Barrichello -1.011
Vettel/DC -0.976
Nakajima -0.725
Sutil -0.694
Rosberg -0.578
Webber -0.379
Trulli -0.201
Fisichella -0.175
Glock -0.102
Alonso -0.031
Piquet                +0.052
Räikkönen +0.179
Bourdais +0.240
Buemi/Vettel +0.306
Heidfeld +0.470
Massa +0.645
Kubica +0.694
Kovalainen +0.860
Hamilton +1.051
 
If I'm reading both sets of figures correctly, there's quite a difference between the two.
Any idea why that is?

Even with the added variable of the lap length, the drivers should still be in the same order should they not?
 
My original article relates to Silverstone only. Anderson has combined all eight 2009 events
to arrive at an average for the season (at least I think that's what he has done).
 
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