Bottas’ Strange Crash at Baku
Looking carefully at the onboard footage from Valtteri Bottas’ car, it is obvious that something strange was going on with the car — and it might explain this unusual accident.
Earlier in the lap, Bottas made a mistake at Turn 1, meaning the length of that particular lap was very different from the previous one. As a result, the energy management had to be recalculated.
Because this process resets every lap, the car’s algorithms are optimised to use all the available energy before the end of the lap.
So, after the Turn 1 mistake, all the remaining sectors were being run with a significant energy-management offset.
As Bottas approached Turn 15, this appears to have resulted in an uncharacteristically long period of super-clipping, which apparently topped up the battery and caused the system to stop recharging.
But for some reason, the hydraulic rear brakes did not engage.
Bottas was therefore left with only the front brakes, which immediately locked up, leaving him with virtually no chance of regaining control of the car.
It is another reminder of the incredibly complex interaction between energy management and the braking system in modern F1 cars.
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Aero vs Mechanical Limit
From the very first test laps with the current F1 cars, it became clear that this generation is much closer to the limit of tire grip than the previous ground-effect cars ever were.
With a greater reliance on mechanical grip rather than the powerful aerodynamic devices — particularly the diffuser — the car behaves very differently as it approaches the limit.
For the drivers, the difficult part is judging where that invisible limit actually is. Going closer to it means going faster — but cross it, and the car can suddenly become very difficult to control.
Some drivers appear to have adapted to these specific circumstances more easily than others.
It is obvious that Piastri, for example, is struggling, and the same appears to be true of Leclerc and Russell.
On the other side of the spectrum are Antonelli, Hamilton, Norris and Verstappen.
And it is not difficult to spot the difference between the two groups:
No World Championships in the first one. And soon, 13 World Championships in the second…
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New F1 Track
Which of the current F1 drivers have not driven at Sepang?
# | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Charles Leclerc* |
2 | George Russell |
3 | Lando Norris |
4 | Oscar Piastri |
5 | Alexander Albon |
6 | Liam Lawson |
7 | Franco Colapinto |
8 | Oliver Bearman |
9 | Kimi Antonelli |
10 | Gabriel Bortoleto |
11 | Isack Hadjar |
12 | Arvid Lindblad |
*Charles Leclerc participated in FP1 for Sauber in 2017, but did not race at Sepang.
The list above could easily be called “The Next Crop” — or even “The Next Generation of F1 Champions.”
If their recent performances are anything to go by, they should be right at the front by Lap 2 or 3.
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All images and videos used in The Fastest Lap Newsletter are our own or have been provided by our partners, including https://www.spasgp.com/
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Tomorrow, best. 🏎️