Pitstop spreadsheet

[jez101]

 

[sushifiesta]

Well here it is. Unfortunately you'll have to have Python installed to run it as I don't know how to package it nicely as an exe or something. If you are using Windows I think this link should work: http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.1/python-2.7.1.msi. If you are on a mac then I think you should already have Python but unfortunately I don't know how it works...

So basically what I'm saying is here is some code that you can't run, lol, I should have thought of this. If anyone is interested enough though you can try installing python etc. and see if it works. On Windows if everything goes ok you should just be able to double click it and it should work after python is installed. If you have problems let me know and I will fail try to help. If none of that works you could just drag the file into notepad and look at the code, but that's not very exciting at all lol.

Basically it will ask you to put in the same variables that jez used in his spreadsheet then print out the possible tyre combinations and the best strategy for each one. For example, using the original values from the spreadsheet it says the best strategy is 3 stops with the following stints:

Option: 16 laps
Option: 16 laps
Option: 16 laps
Prime: 22 laps

With this giving 92.15s added due to tyre wear and pit stops. I should point out that my times are slightly different from jez's because I didn't include any extra lap time due to degradation on the first lap (so the 1st lap is 0 seconds added, then 0.1s for the 2nd lap etc.).

Well there goes my day. Well done if I haven't completely lost you by now. Also, it would be interesting to see what the tyre wear is like in Canada jez. I will do my best to resist doing it myself though .

 

[jez101]

Double like from me sushi! I will get this Python thing sorted and give it a whirl.

I have some ideas on how we can understand the Pirellis better with all the data that is here, there and everywhere...

Will have a look after the weekend produces lots of nice new juicy numbers

 

[RasputinLives]

fun with maths and excel - interesting reading - nice work guys!

 

[sushifiesta]

If anyone does get it working then be warned that it may take some time for it to calculate the best 4 and 5 stop strategies depending on the number of race laps you've put in and the power of the computer you're running it on. I've done up to 100 laps on my desktop and it took maybe a couple of minutes to finish. It displays the results for each of the 9 possible* tyre combinations as it goes along though so you should be able to see it working. The reason it takes so long is that for each of those 9 it is looping through every single combination of laps for each stint.

* I'm pretty sure there are only nine possible tyre strategies due to the tyre rules - three of each set and one of each must be used in the race. So, for example, the only possible five stop strategy is three stints on options and three stints on primes.

 

[ATL11]

Fantastic work, how about I throw a spanner into the CTA brain storming! How would you work the strategy out so you could add a section for rain, duration of rain, effect and then how lap times decreased as dry line developed? I would imagine once you've done this you could then add a Safety Car element. Then I'd sell it as a CTA product.......

 

[sushifiesta]

Lol that would open a whole new can of worms. You probably could spend a lifetime developing something like this and never end up with anything that's really useful... Also, before you start laying claim to potential profits I think me and jez need to have a business meeting ..

 

[ATL11]

Lol that would open a whole new can of worms. You probably could spend a lifetime developing something like this and never end up with anything that's really useful... Also, before you start laying claim to potential profits I think me and jez need to have a business meeting ..

With the safety car bit first, I would imagine you kind find out then the safety car came out, it's average speed, how that would impact the tyres, how long it was out for, the only think I can think that wouldn't be an exact science would be the time of the lap the car was first impacted by the safety car, because it's unknown where the c ar would be on the lap, so 1 of the calculations would be % of lap impacted (of course) and then position in stack to see how much time would be impacted on the restart lap, e.g. further down the stack of cars the bigger the impact to that first lap as the stream of cars comes round to hit the safety car line.......oh man it could be massive......

 

[sushifiesta]

I guess the simplest way to implement the safety car would just be to reduce the race distance by the number of safety car laps, or in other words assume those laps have no impact on the tyre.

As for rain that would make things so much more complicated, for one we haven't seen the wet tyres yet so have no idea how they degrade etc.! Also you'd have to work out the optimum time to switch from dry to intermediate to wet tyres. The number of possible strategies would be massive!!!

 

[sushifiesta]

I don't think I fancy getting any useful tyre info out of today's race lol!!!

 

[MCLS]

Or indeed any data almost.

 

[jez101]

I don't think I fancy getting any useful tyre info out of today's race lol!!!

Yes, probably not worth trying to explain what happened in numbers

I will have a look at the practice data just to develop the method though.

 

[sushifiesta]

I got sucked in again and had a luck at some times from the race today. I've posted it in a new thread because it got pretty long though, and I'm planning on looking at some more over thte next few days. There's quite a nice x^2 relationship that comes out at the end for the soft tyre - could be a fluke though .

The thread is here if you want a look: Tyre Analysis - Valencia