F1 » Lewis paces opening day at Ricard

Mark are you a professional racing driver? I ask because I would like to know the source of you expertise concerning the setup of a race car.

Remember that excessive down-force = slower straight line speed... this is the law of physics. So I would have thought that to be faster than your competitors you have to have a good balance between down-force and speed... just like setting up a race car for any race, the driver has to find the "right" balance.

So why is setting up a car for one type of circuit less of a skill than setting up a car for another type of circuit as you are suggesting?

lexington aluminium. read marks letter. MAXIMUM downforce! if you set up a car with the downfore at its maximum settings, you will be far faster through corners, and to hell with the top speed. for monaco this is what is needed. if you check your circuit map you will see that there are little or no straights and many many corners. mark has far more knowledge of matters than you.

Thanks Black and White

No Lex I am not. Obviously they will want the maximum downforce and mechanical grip for Monaco. Straight line speed is not an issue there. While there may be a little room for playing with the settings it has to be one of the easiest set-ups to dial in. From what I have heard during race coverage and read, tracks like Indy are the hardest to get a good set-up. Because it has many very slow corners that require high downforce but it has a very long straight that will be compromised with a high downforce setting. There is a lot more room to get the set-up wrong.

My original post was not meant as a dis to LH. I was attempting to put the test in the proper perspectiv

Thanks for the explanation Mark...

So assuming all cars are on maximum down-force setup and all the cars are able to generate a similar amount of down-force the difference will be amount of mechanical grip the car can generate and of course the skill of the individual drivers...

so who do you think has the advantage? McL or Ferrari?

I think it will be very close. The last race had McL loosing time in the slowest part of the track. Having said that McL probably still have the advantage in Monaco. I would not be suprised to see an all Mcl front row. As we saw last week it can be better to qualify third than second if the track is dirty.

Qual LH, HK, KR
Race LH, KR, HK

Let's hope it is not a parade and that the WDC tighens up even more.