The quickest laps, in terms of average speed, will be realised during qualifying for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
Monza’s long straights, and collection of quick turns, makes high speed a near-constant with the drivers standing on the throttle for the three quarters of the lap.
This means that getting into a driver’s slip stream could prove to be the difference in qualifying, where the margins are so tight. Last year’s top six were separated by less than two tenths of a second.
And although that may also mean getting into a driver’s turbulent air, the prominence of being on the throttle overweighs that slight negative.
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When it does go wrong
To get the benefit of the slip stream down the straights and not be too close to a driver through the turns, is a fine balance. But it has to be maturely crafted, because it can go so wrong.
The 2019 qualifying session saw all the remaining cars, in Q3, leave getting onto the track impossibly late, as they squabbled to get into one another’s slip stream, and benefit their laps.
The problem was that nobody wanted to be the lead car, and they each slowed down. Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault skipped the chicane, and other drivers dithered behind.
That meant that only Carlos Sainz’s McLaren crossed the line in time to set a lap in the dying stages of Q3, and a farce had been called out.
Instead of seeing the field push their cars to the absolute limit, fans saw them squabble over the slip stream; the front-runners knew that their positioning in this determined the quality of their lap time.
Complacency leads to complete and total chaos 🫣
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2024
Enjoy the utterly cursed final moments of qualifying at the 2019 Italian Grand Prix in full 🍿#F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/VbNxRoxbY4
The added complexion
More likely an issue in Q1, when there will be more cars aiming for the same objective, preparing for tyre temperature has made a drivers’ Saturday performance, as much as broken it.
Last weekend, at the Dutch Grand Prix, Alex Albon could not prepare his tyres in the ideal way as he was stuck behind other cars, who were going slowly, and was cooling his tyres too much.
Talking to the media, including motorsport.com, Albon said: “We came out of the garage and there was a… I must have been waiting for about two and a half minutes to get out of the pit lane.
“And then by the time we got out of the pitlane, all the people that came out of the pitlane before were on their push laps. So, then you do a slow out-lap because you have to let all the cars pass who are on a push lap. By the time that happens, you go into Turn 1 and the tyres are absolutely nowhere. You cannot do anything.”
Hence, balancing the need for tyre temperature (which requires different pace and strategies from each team) and the slip stream, particularly for Monza, will require gamesmanship and probably yield a lot of frustration.
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