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Formula 1 has always been a sport that is besotted with its own history, but that infatuation has more than just symbolic significance. While there is enough room for drama, inspiration, and general grandeur, the value of number crunching must not be overlooked. Similar to the scouts, the formula 1 mantra is “be prepared”. The previous performance is always the basis for the next race. Dive deep into the maze-like basement of the McLaren Technology Center and you will find setup sheets that go back to the days of Bruce and Denny, and while our current race development department doesn’t go as deep into our history, during normal race prep they carefully study the racing data of the past few years while strategists can look back up to a decade to assess things like the likelihood of a safety car. But what if you can’t?
What happens if the upcoming race is a black hole in terms of data? This comes in many forms and we will see most of them at the end of this season. Yas Marina, after Jeddah, with its new banked turns is the mild version, in which a known quantity is transformed into something new; Conversely, Losail presented a tougher challenge last time, as F1 had never attended as much as a test session and information from other four-wheeled sources was sketchy at best. However, it was much easier to plan for the Qatar Grand Prix than a Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, which is held on a course so new that the paint is still drying.
So what is the team doing to prepare? Lots of people are happy about surprises and absolutely none of them work in racing technology or strategy for a Formula 1 team. The task of planning in the weeks and months before a race is to minimize guesswork as soon as the team arrives on the track. This is critical. Due to the limited time and amount of fresh tires, there are few opportunities to try things out on the track – especially this season with shorter training sessions. If the base vehicle is good, these setup experiments can be used to increase performance rather than fix the underlying issues. It’s similar with strategy: if the team arrives with a clear idea of the likely strategy, they can use their exercise session tire mapping to examine key strategic parameters: for example, it would be a waste of time to run the most laps the hard, if the race is a clear soft> mean, one-stop race should be.
For most circuits, historical data from recent seasons is the guiding principle for making these baseline assumptions and is used at that point in the year in conjunction with data from similar circuits visited in the first half of the year. The historical data is not available for a new track. Each part of the team must therefore begin its preparation from the first principles.
“Pit loss, tire behavior, overtaking,” says Randy Singh, Director of Strategy and Sporting, ticking the most important topics his group needs to understand before making strategy recommendations. “We have to understand all the important parameters so that we know how many stops we are likely to make, what the racing strategy will be, which tires are preferred and so on. We want to know before we hit the racetrack because that knowledge will influence which tires we use [and remove from the allocation] on Friday and Saturday in the practice. “
In the case of tires, the task is to estimate the influence of the track layout: how much energy goes into them; how rough the surface is; whether they are likely to pebble or blister. While simulation tools – both offline and driver-in-the-loop simulators – are very mature, tire performance remains difficult to predict as the team relies on track scans and data collected by Pirelli on the abrasiveness (or lack thereof) of the Surface to provide initial values.
“On a new track, more than at a normal event, you expect things to change from what you expected before the event,” says Randy, “so there will be more work than usual to check the behavior of the tires in FP1 and then to update measures even within FP1 and at the same time look at what we want to do for the next meeting. “
The team can use various methods to calculate the pit loss – simply the time lost due to a pit stop – on a new route. “We have several ways of estimating pit loss,” confirms Randy. “The easy way is to use the track layout drawings: you can try to figure out what speeds people are driving on the racing line and through the pit lane, and that will help you figure out how much extra time a car will take to travel to Box drives, compared to one that is not – although we also have the simulator that helps us estimate the pit loss as well. “
The final element of the strategy discussion revolves around overtaking. On tracks on which overtaking is likely to be very difficult – for example Monaco, Imola, the Hungaroring – the use of the training units and the eventual setup are heavily distorted in favor of qualifying: be straight on tracks on which overtaking is to be expected – Shanghai, for example, or Baku – the preparation for the race is extremely important: “We get driver feedback from all of our drivers, including our simulator drivers, on how difficult or easy it will be,” says Randy. “We also look at the track layout and measure sections of a new track with similar sections of other track to get an idea of how it compares. From this we derive an estimate of where the overtaking delta falls. And again we will update that on Friday in FP1 and FP2 and ask the drivers when they are following another car or they are being followed, how easy it is to defend or overtake. “
Simulation, simulation, simulation
If the strategy department determines what we want to do, then it’s up to the race engineer to figure out how to do it. All of this work relies heavily on the use of simulations – but not all in the way most people assume. The driver-in-the-loop simulator usually draws attention, but the majority of the team’s simulation efforts are offline and go through many setup iterations to determine wing levels, ride heights, stiffnesses, etc., purely in software. The most promising results are then transferred to the driver-in-the-loop simulator. Here, our test and development drivers Oliver Turvey and Will Stevens work with the simulator’s own team of engineers to refine the setup. They start this process months before the race, but as the date approaches they share the sim time with the racers and their own team of engineers who come into the simulation to complement the process and prepare themselves. For the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Oliver started simulating the route in early autumn; the racing drivers started their sessions after the last race in Qatar.
The value of course depends on the quality of the simulation. With an established track, there are a variety of data sources available, and teams can buy standard maps and combine that with their own telemetry from previous years, track scans, and other data points to create something very precise. It’s a little easier with a brand new circuit. Maps are made from the architectural drawings before the route is completed, and then greater accuracy is added as more is known about the route – perhaps from 3D scans or Pirelli data. “The maps in the simulator are pretty good,” says Randy. “We can use it to help the drivers practice and to get used to the track. With a limited driving time of just two hours on Friday and realistically only four sets of tires, we want to ensure that drivers spend as little time as possible learning the route and spending a lot more time optimizing their performance. “
When Friday comes
Even for a well-known route, the simulator is not exactly true to the original: surfaces change and are patched, subsidence creates waves, curbs are replaced, the weather varies from year to year and the first trips on Friday are often about the differences between the old and new. This is even more the case with a new circuit. “The simulator isn’t going to be perfect,” admits Randy. “The drivers will have to do laps during practice in order to familiarize themselves with the condition of the track: exactly where you can brake; where is the grip; Are there different reference points that you use? A large part of Friday will be training the drivers. “
It’s not just the drivers who have to familiarize themselves with the route. The offline simulations have developed a baseline for the car – but there are all kinds of mechanical checks and balances that always take place in the background on an established route, but take center stage on a new route. While the drivers on the track, supported by the test and development drivers in the simulator, are doing more laps than usual, the engineers will be working hard to ensure that the car can cope with the rigors of the new track – but it is not too conservative and leaves them behind Performance on the table – everything from the transmission oil temperature to the wear of the plank is examined intensively.
When that is all together we should be able to tackle a new track like any other. The intention would be for the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to be as comfortable and familiar as Monza or Interlagos through qualifying on Saturday evening …‘We did our homework right.
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