How a 'bizarre' power boost for Charles Leclerc uncovered F1 'smoking gun'
A tiny moment that went virtually unseen at the Chinese Grand Prix has exposed the complexities of F1's all-new technical regulations.
Two races into the season, the new rules package has been almost universally panned by drivers, pundits and fans alike.
The main focus of the criticism for fans is the incredible complexity of the engine regulations, particularly around how electrical energy is harvested and deployed.
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A video posted to YouTube by The Race will have done little to quell those criticisms.
The video uses telemetry to explain how battery deployment cost Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc a stack of speed and lap time on his final flying lap in sprint qualifying.
Charles Leclerc finished second in the sprint, behind winner George Russell. NurPhoto via Getty Images
"What the hell is happening? This deployment. My god'," Leclerc said down the long back straight.
The answer, analyst Jonathan Noble believes is the best example of why the new regulations "don't make sense". Despite setting a lap time two-tenths quicker than his previous best, Leclerc was down 15km/h on top speed down the long back straight.
The reason was a tiny error he made on the exit of turn 10, when the rear of Leclerc's Ferrari wagged slightly. The Monegasque counter steered accordingly and caught the slide, but crucially also slight lifted off the throttle - from 100 per cent to 95 per cent.
A quirk of the rules meant that lift re-started a cycle that meant extra power was deployed on the short straight between turn 10 and 11.
While the spike in power gave a tiny benefit down that straight, it meant he had less available power down the 1.2km long back straight, which gave back with interest all the time he gained.
The red circle shows the tiny throttle blip, and the yellow arrow points to a subsequent power boost over his previous lap. The Race
The end result is a 15km/h deficit and loss of about half a second on his previous lap. While it still proved to be his fastest lap of the session, the difference was a little over two tenths when it should have been much more.
Leclerc qualified sixth. Had he not suffered the loss of power, he might have threatened the front row.
He went on to finish second in the sprint race. He qualified and finished fourth for the main grand prix.
"We finally get, I think, not only a proper picture of how these cars are, but also the complexities, the madness as one team boss described to me, of the rules and how difficult it is to drive, to not only get the best out of these cars, but to understand what's going on," Noble said.
Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc do battle during the sprint race. Getty
"You look at the telemetry data and we can see it here, all lap time bleeds away on that back straight. The peak speed doesn't go as high. He's up to 15kmh slower all the way down the back straight.
"Our understanding normally is how you harvest (energy) going into a corner basically decides how good your deployment is coming out of it. But if we look at the previous section at turns 11, 12 and 13 there's very little difference (between his fastest two laps) so it doesn't seem to be an obvious explanation.
"You need to look much further back in the lap to work out what's happened. Now you can look at that straight between turns 10 and 11 and you can see there's a lot more speed in that second lap from Leclerc.
"Much more power is being deployed, and that doesn't particularly make sense. The reason now we can see, there is a slight throttle lift … and this bizarrely, due to quirks in the rules, triggers a power boost randomly.
"That power boost burns through more power than he wants and then leaves him without power coming down the back straight."
Co-host Edd Straw described the explanation as the "smoking gun" in the rules debate.
F1 bosses resisted making any changes to the rules packaged ahead of this weekend's race in Suzuka, but the five-week gap before the Miami Grand Prix - caused by the cancellation of the Middle East double-header - might give time for a reset.
For Australian F1 fans, the Japanese Grand Prix is in the best time zone until Azerbaijan in September.
Practice at Suzuka begins lunchtime Friday (AEDT). Qualifying is at 5pm on Saturday, with the race at 4pm Sunday.
