Let's talk about grip, baby

 

For listeners of the pod, this first real post on the Dirty Side Deckchair blog will come of something as a shock given that it is Rob mashing the keys right now...

Tires.

"Wait, what? Doesn't Rob hate the subject of tires?"

Well, if I'm totally honest this is more about the overall subject of grip, not specifically caring about what compound is being used. Sorry Brian.

As F1 heads to Montreal this weekend, the subject of grip at this track will no doubt raise it's slippery head again. 

Why I hear you ask?

Well luckily for you this whole post is dedicated to that subject.

I had my own brush with grip problems in Montreal so can totally relate to what the teams will be facing this weekend.  A business trip to the city in January 2020 saw me staying 5 minutes away from the office I would need to walk to.  Things did not pan out this was as my shoes, while perfectly acceptable for the office, offered no grip on the snowy streets of Montreal.  I think a pair of bowling shoes would have worked out better.  The 5 minute journey took me almost 25 to complete as I slowly shuffled & slipped along the sidewalk.  

I'd made the rookie mistake of opting for slicks and just could not get the soles up to temperature.

So I know that coming to Canada with the wrong setup can completely destroy your plans.

The track in Montreal is one of the fastest and most abrasive circuits on the calendar where setup is notoriously hard to get right.

The layout of the circuit is a fabulous blend of low speed & medium speed corners, some high speed straights, and some heavy duty braking zones specifically into the hairpin and chicanes.

The low speed corners also demand high grip acceleration out of them, nowhere more so than the famous hairpin.

You need the downforce for the corners but need speed for the straights so most teams have tried to settle on a medium downforce set up in the past.  

Away from the rubber they roll on, another big contributor to grip here is your ability to brake.  

Apparently there are 7 braking zones on this track of which 6 are classified as very demanding. Unsurprisingly corner 10, or the hairpin to most folk, is the worst,  Cars will brake from around 175mph to 40mph in  the space of just 101 meters

Add to this the fact that the track is not used during the year resulting in a very "green" track early in the race weekend and you have yourself a real setup headache.

That sounds easy right?  Just set the setup switch to medium and move on.

The problem is that there are so many aspects to what constitutes "setup" and getting any one of them wrong can lead to a car that is fast but a pig to handle or that is perfect to handle but without a competitive top speed.  There are also a million different variations in between. 

The new cars with their ground effect aerodynamics may fare better here than their predecessors but the teams are still in for a voyage of discovery as they attempt to find the secret setup sauce needed for a successful race weekend.  Not only have they not been here for two years but these new cars have never raced here.

So what can we expect this weekend?

Graining, degradation, and brake issues are expected to dominate team radio.  

Take one drink every time you hear a driver say "I've got no rears", "Tires have gone", or "I've got no grip" and also drink if a race engineer mentions brakes need cooling.

I'm feeling FP1 will see a few visits off track as teams, and drivers, get to grips (pun intended) with the new cars on this track.  Some drivers will also be making their first laps of this circuit in an F1 car and maybe all together.

We've seen the Ferraris settle down from their porpoising into corners much quicker than other cars which may well set them up for a strong race given how crucial the braking zones will be here.

Well...if they can just work out how to finish a race and not screw up strategy then they should run well.  

Oh, providing they are not starting at the back due to multiple penalties.  

On second thoughts, maybe Ferrari won't be that strong.

Over at Red Bull they do seem to have unlocked the ability to manage tires although it seems Max cracked that nut better than Checo in Baku as the pace differential was, in part, attributed to Max looking after his tires much better than Checo.

Alpine have looked fast and able to manage tires so expect a good showing from them this weekend, and if not feel free to come back here and ridicule me.

We've seen some teams have some brake problems so far this season so I expect we'll see some problems caused here this weekend given how brutal this place is on the brakes. 

Final musing from the deckchair is that I can't look beyond Red Bull this week unless Charles avoids a grid penalty.  I hope he does as we want to see a multi-team battle for the lead and no other team seems able to compete with Red Bull this year.  

The week hasn't started too well for Charles though as I just saw he missed his flight to Montreal.

Oh, and yes, I'm ruling out Carlos - he just doesn't seem at the races at the moment.

Keep an ear out for the pod this weekend as we'll take a look at the race and give our thoughts on how it unfolded.

Oh, and maybe Pit-lane Paul will be happier this week!

Until next time.