O China GP in Formula 1 It was the first event where the latest sprint format was implemented, with parc ferme restrictions on car setups relaxed between the two Saturday sessions. This opened up the possibility for teams to run very experimental setups in the shorter races – especially for cars that started outside the top 10 on the grid.
However, in practice, competitors felt that the changes they could make were more limited, even if they could be seen as aggressively hopeful.
The performance director of Aston Martin, Tom McCullough, explained the observed limitations. “We had a lot of discussions before the event about the rear wing level setup. But ultimately, doing a 19-lap stint [sprint] It’s still difficult and you can’t really make two big changes compared to the main race.”
McCullough also suggested that the changes made by the F1 teams from the sprint to the GP in China were actually relatively greater than the adjustments being made elsewhere to improve tire wear in the run-up to the longer contests.
This is due to the changed surface of the Shanghai track and the lack of data from teams with the new ground-effect cars for that location before the weekend.
“Maybe it was bigger here just because we didn’t race here [Xangai] long time. The 2019 cars, when we were last here, had rear heights three times greater than the rear heights we are using now and the rigidity of the car, everything is very different: the tires, the aerodynamics.”, he recalled.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“We all simulate and prepare, [e] The track grip itself was maybe worse – more limited at the rear than in the past, which I think we kind of anticipated just by having these tires and how the generation of cars are working.”
“Aston took a kind of opposite path to what we thought: ‘you do a race [no TL1] and then makes some changes before the qualifying sprint. But after the sprint race, you actually learn more in the long, fuel-heavy race. A long 30kg run, you learn.”
“And then we thought, ‘Okay, what’s going to happen when we put in another 70kg of fuel, what are the tires we’re going to have to look after, what do we need to do, bang, make some changes.’ world on the pit straight would have done [essas] changes.”
The most dramatic turnaround of the Shanghai weekend in terms of configuration adjustment results occurred with Nico Hulkenbergfrom the Haaswhose sprint setup “actually made the car worse”, according to the Haas team director, Ayao Komatsu.
Hulkenberg fell from 13th to last in the sprint before the American team managed to get back to a proven setup and he scored a point in the GP.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The head of McLaren, Andrea Stellareckons that “this reopened parc fermé will certainly be used to adjust the car’s balance”, but added: “sometimes this can mean big changes if you realize it’s significantly off.”
He continued: “The possibility of reopening the parc ferme after the sprint has two implications. The first is that the weekend is a little more forgiving. Because if you got some track heights wrong or realized the balance needs adjusting based on tire behavior, for example, you can do that.”
“And at the same time, I think it allows you to be a little bit more aggressive, first of all, in terms of the direction you take or, for example, in terms of riding heights, because you can compensate.”
“And actually, from a purely engineering point of view, we found this interesting because we had the opportunity to see the balance in the sprint. Obviously, if there was some silver bullet, we would have already implemented it.”
“So we don’t talk much more than fine-tuning. But it’s interesting, from an engineering point of view, that you can do this. For us, this change is very welcome.”, highlighted Stella.
