The practice session on Friday morning lasts for 90 minutes, but no car will choose to run the entire session. Generally, drivers will control the number of laps to around 20 based on actual conditions. There are several reasons why this is so.
First of all, tire consumption is a problem. The tire wear of Formula One cars is very severe. Depending on the type of tires, one set of tires can only last ten to twenty laps. The rules require that a car only has eight sets of dry tires in a race. It can be used, but if the tires are worn out in practice, it will be useless in the race.
Secondly, the driver must protect the engine. The rules stipulate that a car can only use eight engines in a season, so the engine needs to be used one less. This season’s seventeen races are just the first practice. Racing, the car engine cannot be worn too much.
Finally, the drivers have to maintain their physical strength to prepare for the race the day after tomorrow. Motorsport is actually a very physically demanding sport, especially Formula One racing. Formula One racing cars do not have an electronic power-assist system, so many operations are completed by the driver's strength. At the same time, when the car turns, the driver has to withstand several times the acceleration of gravity. Under normal circumstances, after a race, each driver will be dehydrated several pounds, which is the same as dehydration during strenuous exercise.
Based on the above reasons, Zhang Guan was called back to the maintenance room. Ross Brown made adjustments to the car based on the data returned by the sensors on the car, and then asked Zhang Guan to run three or four laps, and then returned to the maintenance room. , and began to adjust the car.
Adjusting the car to the best condition is the main task of each team in practice, and it is also something that must be done. Taking into account the different characteristics of each track, some tracks are fast, and some tracks have many corners, the car will undergo a new adjustment at each race.
The 90-minute practice match in the morning ended quickly. When Zhang Guan walked off the field, he and Barrichello walked towards the rest area.
"Hi, Zhang Guan! I'm Vettel!" Vettel of Red Bull Racing came over.
"Hello, Zhang Guan, I'm Rosberg." Rosberg from the Williams Racing Team also greeted Zhang Guan.
This is change, or recognition. Before that, the drivers may not have regarded Zhang Guan as their colleague, and some of them even thought that Zhang Guan’s super driver’s license was bought with money, but today’s practice session has obviously changed the drivers’ views. Views, Zhang Guan's strength has been recognized by everyone and recognized by his peers.
…
In the practice session on Friday morning, the Williams team performed more dazzlingly. The two drivers of the Williams team, Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima, took the top two places in the practice session. The performance of the China Force Racing Team was above the mid-range. Among the major teams, Ferrari still ranks among the best, while McLaren's performance is unsatisfactory.
By Friday afternoon, the Williams team was still eye-catching, Rosberg once again took the first place, the status of Red Bull Racing and Toyota has improved, but McLaren is still sluggish.
On Saturday morning, the teams began to put on super-soft tires for practice, which greatly improved the performance of the drivers. In the practice session on Saturday morning, some drivers already ran within 1 minute and 26 seconds.
Zhang Guan's performance in these three practice sessions can be considered tepid. He did not hit the lap times of the top few, but he did not fall behind, and was almost always in the upper middle range.
Zhang Guan felt that as a new driver, he should keep a low profile in the first race, and after all, there was no need to compete for first place in the practice session, but in fact, his performance shocked everyone.
It is normal for a driver who has just entered Formula One to finish last in the first race. For example, Swiss driver Buemi, who is also a newcomer to F1 this year, finished last in Friday's practice session. This is the ranking a rookie should have.
However, after a brief period of surprise, people still focused their attention on big-name teams such as Ferrari and McLaren. Chasing big names is a common phenomenon in sports, such as Real Madrid in football and the Lakers in basketball. Even if their results are average, they can still get a lot of media attention.
…
On the afternoon of March 28, the Albert Park circuit welcomed a large number of spectators, and qualifying for the F1 Australian Grand Prix was about to begin.
Racing cannot be like track and field sprinting, where everyone lines up and starts together. Apart from anything else, it is not allowed just because of the width of the track. Moreover, it is not easy to overtake in motorsport. The person who starts at the front will undoubtedly have an advantage. So who is in front and who is behind needs a qualifying race to compare.
Qualifying is about the fastest lap time. The rules of Formula One qualifying have been constantly changing over the years. In the previous qualifying, each driver took turns to run a lap, and whoever had the best time would start at the front. Later, the International Automobile Federation felt that this running method was too boring and it was not interesting for a car to circle by itself, so it carried out reforms.
The current qualifying competition is divided into three quarters and implements an elimination system. After the pit area is opened, all cars can come out and run laps. You can run as many laps as you like within the specified time. After qualifying, the drivers will be ranked according to their fastest results. That is to say, if you are fast enough, you can finish first in one timed lap, but if you are not fast enough, you may finish last in ten laps.
In fact, this is also true. In previous competitions, teams like Ferrari have the fastest cars and fastest drivers, so they often only run one timed lap and call it a day, because they are fast enough. You can get first place in one run. But some small teams will keep running on the track, hoping to be lucky enough to perform extraordinarily and get a better starting position.
The time for each qualifying session is 20 minutes, and the top 15 players in the final score can advance to the second qualifying session. There are only 20 cars in the field this year, so the first qualifying session will actually only eliminate five people.
"I think with the level of our car, we can run the first qualifying session with medium tires, so that we can save a set of soft tires." Ross Brown's voice sounded from the headset.
"You are the commander, we listen to you." Zhang Guan said.
The maintenance technician put medium tires on the car, but did not get the insulation covers on the tires. Because racing tires need to reach a certain temperature to have the best grip, the insulation cover can prevent the racing tires from cooling down.
"The pit lane is open. Follow my instructions and prepare to go out. We need to find a better time to avoid being blocked by other cars." Ross Brawn said.
There are more than ten or twenty racing cars running on the track at the same time, and everyone wants to run the fastest lap. However, the racing cars are fast and slow, and fast cars are often blocked by slow cars. For example, when the car in front is ready to return to the pit after finishing the race, it will definitely slow down a bit to avoid tire wear. And if there happens to be a car behind that is sprinting for the fastest lap, the performance will definitely be affected.
Therefore, the timing of starting the car is crucial for qualifying. If the timing of departure is good and there are no slow cars in front of you, you can complete the lap relatively smoothly; if the timing of departure is bad and there are one or even several slow cars in front, your performance will definitely be greatly affected.
Finally, Ross Brown saw an opportunity and said into the walkie-talkie: "Now, get out right now!"
The mechanics quickly pushed the car out and removed the tire insulation covers. Zhang Guan stepped on the accelerator and drove onto the maintenance lane road. At the same time, the camera lens was also focused on Zhang Guan.
"It's a medium tire! Zhang Guan actually raced on a medium tire! I thought he would use a super-soft tire!"
"Why would he use medium tires? Is he so confident that he can advance to the second round with medium tires?"
"Medium tires are much slower than supersoft tires. A new team did not choose supersoft tires to compete in the first qualifying session, but chose medium tires! The Chinese The idea is quite unique!”
From a distance, Omi looked at this scene with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
"Who do you think you are, Ferrari or McLaren? You want to get into the second round with medium tires? Arrogant!"
PS: The sixth update is completed. It’s the first day of September. Please buy a guaranteed monthly ticket. Thank you everyone!
(End of chapter)