I'm constantly looking to expand my analyses portfolio... and this time, I added a type of analysis which is straightforward yet highly insightful!

I present you the 'Aero Summary' analysis, which should shed some light on the aero properties of each car in a given session! It is a scatterplot of the ten teams, considering the best lap for each. I extract the mean and top speeds from that lap and plot the team as a dot on the chart. Going from left to right, we have an increase in the mean lap speed, which means a lower laptime: teams on the left are 'slow', those on the right 'quick'. Going from the bottom to the top, we have an increase in top speed: the cars at the bottom have high drag, while those at the top have low drag.

The horizontal axis tells you how quick a car is, and the vertical axis why it is quick (or slow!). We can combine the two things to get four different corners:

  • Top Right corner: quick car with high top speed, so a vehicle that achieves good performance thanks to high aerodynamic efficiency

  • Bottom Right corner: quick car with low top speed, so a vehicle that achieves good performance despite having a lot of drag; such a car must have very high downforce to be able to perform so well despite the top speed deficit!

  • Top Left corner: a slow car, despite its high top speed. This car will produce very low downforce, to be slow DESPITE having an excellent top speed.

  • Bottom Left corner: a slow car with a bad top speed. Such a car will be slow primarily due to high drag without much downforce in return (low aerodynamic efficiency)

So, how did the cars perform in Bahrain?

  • Ferrari and RedBull are both very efficient cars. The Ferrari has even lower drag, but it was slower despite that -> Lower downforce.

  • Aston and Mercedes were practically identical! (the two points are one over the other). The two cars perform similarly and for the exact same causes!

  • Williams is a low-drag car with very low downforce as well.

  • The AlphaTauri was about as slow, but for the opposite reason (very high drag and low efficiency)

  • McLaren and Alfa were relatively slow in qualifying, with balanced properties.

This analysis will become a staple starting from the next GP... stay tuned!