🗣️ | Jacques Villeneuve on why no one is on Max's level
"Red Bull is not that far ahead. When they got all their poles, it was a tenth, half a tenth… super close! So that’s not domination."
"That’s not the years of Mercedes when they were a second ahead of everyone, and everybody was OK with that – there was not an issue."
"Max makes the difference because he’s at it 24 hours a day. He’s never getting tired. He gets out for the race car, and he’s still thinking about racing. That’s all that exists."
"On the simulator, go-karts, whatever. I don’t see the other drivers doing that. Maybe [Fernando] Alonso a bit but, all the other ones, they’re busy doing other things. They get out of the car and they do a bunch of other things."
"If they all focused like Max, then maybe they would be at Max’s level."
[@Planet_F1] #F1
NEW: Private jets getting ready to leave for a ‘Climate Change’ conference in Dubai are frozen on the runway in Munich as 60% of Europe is covered in snow.
Let me say that again: Rich people getting ready to board their gas guzzling jets to fly to a ‘Climate Change’ (formerly known as Global Warming) conference can’t leave because their planes are covered in freezing snow.
@brrrake I just saw The Dear Hunter at a place in NC last month! Went to see Delta Sleep, but stayed to watch them play after. They were pretty different in a good way!
@A__A__G__@brrrake AAG - he’s saying that max has a wide range of ability and can drive anything, because he’s able to drive even the sharpest (any level of unpredictability) car. RB is building a fast car regardless of whether it helps max or not cause it doesn’t matter, he can’t drive it.
I've read a lot of the replies and there is a HUGE misunderstanding about this discussion.
The concept of "car development" and "car setup" are two completely different things, and they have different implications on the car and driver.
Alex states the car isn't developed for Max, but he can extract more from it in certain areas due to the way he drives the car.
A general idea is that "development" or "philosophy" is how all of the aerydnamics, tyres, and suspension are designed to work together. In general the goal is to make a car that has the highest level of performance that is reaosnable. Typically, your development drivers (not race drivers), will do most of the leg work on these topics in the simulator. Once or twice a month, the race drivers will come back in and confirm that these "developments" are indeed adding performance to the car (faster lap time, or fixing an undesirable characteristic).
The next concept is "setup" - and this is taking the car concept that you have, and using all of the adjustment dials to suit the circuit conditions, tyre behaviour, and driver's preferences. These are paramters like toe settings, ride heights, heave (vertical) stiffnesses, roll stiffness, roll stiffness distribution (mechanical balance), and aero balance.
This is a range of tools that have the same adjustment range for both cars.
In general, if I driver can accept the exact same car with a sharper front end, they can go faster. The problem is the closer you get to this, the less stable and less predictable the car is.
In my experience, in car development, you tend to focus on whichever driver has struggles with the current car philosophy, and do everything you can to help this driver. Because if you have added stability and confidnece for a driver who is slightly slower, the faster driver can simply drive that car faster. Regarding this topic, I am fortunate to have a lot of first hand experience.
I hope this has helped to explain some of the nuance of the topic.
@AlexVangeen@F1@fia@SkySportsF1 Ocons move was foolish for sure. We can’t ignore that. But all the drivers are ruthless to each other, you’re just ignoring that. Getting revenge is part of the game on track.
@QuickStopF1 Blowing this up for no reason. This stuff happens every qualifying session. Every driver doing something different and no one is gonna be polite