Matthew Jordan

Silverstone, you never disappoint. Plenty of races to go and championship on - come on Lewis! Great bumping into @FormulaPace and @FormulaRana - you guys are awesome. Love the insights you both share! #lh44 #teamLH

@FormulaRana @FormulaPace Sat in Farm too - will look out for you! Sunday master class incoming. Come on Lewis ! 🔨🇬🇧 🐐

@FormulaPace and I out here supporting the home boy🐐 Gowan Lewis 🔨⏰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

THE GREATEST EVER! @LewisHamilton Let’s go!!!! The first of many in red!

Thank you Team LH, love you all

@FormulaUR_ Great analysis

This also goes far beyond just Hamilton. It’s an early prediction, but I saw the inverse traits appear in many other drivers - particularly the rookies in 2025. If we were to visualise Bearman and Ocon’s brake traces from 2025, you’ll find that the former had a very fast brake release which appears - at first glance - to be the optimised way of driving a very developed GE era car. Driver61 also drove in the VCARB sim and noticed the same trait in Hadjar. Conversely - Antonelli fell more in Hamilton’s boat, often losing out to Russell in sheer commitment through carrying the brakes deeper, pitching the car too much in faster corners and lost a lot of time because of it. But often made up a lot of time in the same areas we saw Hamilton look strong. I suspect we will see the Haas, Mercedes and Ferrari pairings converge compared to 2025 purely based on this observation.

I wanted to talk more about driving physics/the techy side of F1 this year so here it continues: Ultimately, you cannot point towards an entire regulation set to explain the struggles of a driver - because the evidence suggests quite the opposite. Hamilton’s struggles across the last 2 years - from my perspective - came from a blatant refusal to adapt to a specific, counter intuitive driving quirk that came with the development of the GE era of car. When it came to adapting to the GE era itself, the speed came rather effortlessly at times, and had the same elite pace across 2022 and 2023. As these cars developed, he did not accept that his driving had to change with it, particularly at higher speed ranges. If you listened to his radio over any weekend in 2024 or 2025, whether it’s Bono or Adami - he is constantly being told to stop trailing the brakes in high speed corners. Which is not natural. There was such a mismatch between the mech balance and aero balance that keeping the weight on the nose during a corner robbed the cars off it’s downforce potential, as that was optimised when the car’s pitch was at it’s lowest. In slower, technical corners where aero load was at its smallest, this trait vanished entirely. Long braking zones, combined entries, longer radius corners, tight hairpins there was no evidence he was struggling with “GE” cars whatsoever. And I’m shocked no pundit has bothered to research it enough given how much they talk about it.

@FormulaUR_ @FormulaUR_ I agree. Think this will age well. What website do you use to analyse telemetry?

A bit of a premature take which will definitely age well over time - but on just raw driving ability Kimi Antonelli is surely one of the most versatile drivers in (track) motorsport history already… As he gets older, more experienced and adds wins to his belt - this will be a very common take to the masses.

@F1BigData Just seen your post. Thanks !

@F1BigData Does anyone have Lewis’s best sector 2 time? I saw he went green. How much faster is as this compared to his first run?

🚨OPTIMAL LAPS IN MONZA QUALIFYING 1 - McLaren - 1:18.771 2 - Red Bull - 1:18.792 (+0.021s) 3 - Ferrari - 1:18.961 (+0.190s) 4 - Mercedes - 1:18.978 (+0.207s) 5 - Kick Sauber - 1:19.178 (+0.407s) 6 - Aston Martin - 1:19.303 (+0.532s) 7 - Haas - 1:19.439 (+0.668s) 8 - Williams - 1:19.458 (+0.687s) 9 - Racing Bulls - 1:19.764 (+0.993s) 10 - Alpine - 1:19.878 (+1.107s)

@FormulaUR_ @AlainProstEra Completely agree this era doesn’t play to Lewis’s strengths, so impressive he’s there on one lap pace. He was playing catch up in S2 and Stowe to Charles and in q3 got close. You could argue the pace is there it just doesn’t come as naturally in the high speed.

Truthfully, I don’t know. I think Hamilton’s “intangibles” are far better than Leclerc’s but does he have the consistency of pace anymore? Honestly, I don’t know. In these cars, I’d say no. If a 2024/2025 style car was a title contender, Leclerc beats him every time. A big weakness of Lewis in the modern day is not being able to utilise the active downforce at high speed - he just doesn’t have that high momentum style in the high speed corners. That’s what changed since 2023 in my opinion. But if the 2026 cars are more similar to more traditional cars then he has every chance to beat Leclerc.

My prediction is starting to take shape. Now that Hamilton has been here long enough, let’s see how it unfolds. As of today, this is exactly how it’s turned out.

@FormulaUR_ @AlainProstEra What do you think changed in 2023?

@FormulaUR_ Think it was on another post but completely agree about the lack of classic cars. Would love to see more. I think one year they had a full on classic cars race and the racing was brilliant

Thoughts on the Silverstone weekend: - Overall it was a fun weekend, first time I went on the Thursday as well so that was a new experience. - Got to experience all types of British weather in one - don’t think that’s ever happened in any year I’ve been. - Qualifying was the most enjoyable day, having all the home favourites in the fight for pole was very enjoyable. - I’m sure Lando had great intentions with his own grandstand, but I feel that arrangement took away from the atmosphere at other parts of the circuit. It essentially left the 2 main fanbases (Lewis, Lando) being separated the entire weekend - which isn’t ideal. Of course we all cheered for Lando (and George) but would’ve been cool to have more of a mix between fanbases. - On a separate note, I do miss the older days. I watched my video of 2018 Q3 and it’s just not like that anymore. But times move on, can’t live in the past.

@FormulaUR_ Could you share your video from 2018? Would be cool to see

@FormulaUR_ I was at T1 in 2018 when Lewis got pole - amazing atmosphere. 2021 was insane too,I’ll always remember the noise from maggots beckets in sprint quali on both of Lewis’s laps. 2021 race was next level, I was shaking after his contact with max. Can’t forget last year too.

@AeroTechVH Ah interesting, thanks! I feel Ferrari are yet to fully understand their car and unlock the full potential. But we have seen snippets of it like the sprint pole and race! Once they’re fully on top of it hopefully they’ll be in the mix with the mclarens.

They were on very different setups, with Leclerc attacking kerbs and Hamilton avoiding them as far as I saw Hamilton's setup was changed at his own request, he said he'll take up the role of setup this weekend. He got it right for Sprint and not so right for Race. He's still learning a very new car and it will take time before he's gelled fully with the car

🟥 The curious case of Leclerc's Front Wing in China - a thread 🟥 Big thanks to @DANIELEALOFAN for sharing this photo! Losing the front wing endplate in Chinese GP wasn't the first time it happened to Leclerc in this Ground Effect Era, he had the same experience in Silverstone 2022 and Mexico 2023. In Silverstone they didn't replace it because they wanted to keep track position (like yesterday) and in Mexico they did change it under Red Flag mid-race As soon as we look again at those two cases, you'll note the big difference compared to yesterday

@AeroTechVH Thanks for the insights @AeroTechVH ! Super interesting. I believe HAM and LEC were on the same setup (might be wrong). Do you think this broken wing had anything to do with LEC plank not being worn out like HAMs was? Or do you think Ferrari made a mistake with the HAMs setup?

Ultimately, the worst thing for Leclerc was probably the completely different change in balance between low, medium and high-speed corners having so much flexing on the front wing Low-speed was probably the least affected, medium speed corners are mostly left-handers where the car is leaning on and turning with the front-right tyre and right-hand side of the car was less affected by this damage. But the high-speed downforce loss is clear as day 2-3 tenths a lap lost with that front wing? My verdict - very likely

@f1_tempo_ I love your data and use it all the time. I was just comparing HAM & LEC and noticed something odd. On F1 tempo the delta between them after S2 on their best laps is 0.224. However when you add the sectors of their best laps is it 0.126. It’s confusing me lol.

@Fred__18 Thanks for the insights ! I’m confused: HAM best S3 which he did on his best lap = 39.604. LEC best did a 39.572, on his best lap. That’s a difference of 0.032. Looking at data at s2 Leclerc is 0.224 behind HAM. And finishes 0.094 behind. Which is a gain of 0.130 not 0.032.

Non ci si rende tanto conto perché il risultato è abbastanza in linea con le aspettative ma la qualifica del #ChineseGP è stata molto più combattuta e in altalena di quello che si è percepito. Un dato: #Hamilton era insieme a #Russell per andare in prima fila all'ultima curva, poi però ha fatto ancora -12, come ieri, e lascia quasi 2 decimi lì, finendo P5. Max #Verstappen era primo fino a T8... Alla fine comunque la classifica è arrivata. #Piastri e la #McLaren si prendono la pole, com'era prevedibile, anche se con più difficoltà nel gestire la vettura di quello che si potrebbe pensare, con pista e gomme comunque difficili per tutti da interpretare. In prima fila uno strepitoso Russell, che sfrutta al meglio una #Mercedes un po' più scarica della concorrenza e veloce sul dritto. #Norris continua a fare tanti errori in un weekend finora tutt'altro che positivo, mentre le #Ferrari sono sembrate faticare un po' di più, #Leclerc ha anche accennato alle pressioni delle gomme, anche se Lewis appunto fino all'ultima curva aveva per le mani un risultato diverso. Da dire che dai dati della 44 si vede più fatica nel primo complex e tanta più fatica nel veloce, con un posteriore meno forte e un rispetto a ieri. L'impressione è che a Maranello spostato il bilanciamento sull'anteriore (e forse caricato appena un click) in ottica gara e protezione dell'avantreno. La gara potrebbe essere movimentata. Piastri dovrebbe poter allungare, ma dietro ci dovrebbe essere parecchio rimescolamento: Russell che lotterà per rimanere nelle posizioni di testa pur con un po' meno carico, Max che dovrà cercare di non distruggere le gomme con la RB21 che in quest'ottica non aiuta, le Ferrari che in teoria sul passo dovrebbero andare bene, ma non avranno aria pulita. Il tutto condito da un asfalto mangia gomme e quindi da graining e degrado alle stelle e quindi dovrebbe essere una gara a due soste. Insomma le premesse sono per una gara interessante e ancora da scoprire.

If both Ferrari drivers had delivered their optimal laps HAM would have been 2 tenths faster than LEC in his first quali for Ferrari.

First Quali of 2025 🏁 Let’s look at their execution ⬇️ - McLaren & TSU delivered their optimal lap times. - ALB, GAS, LEC, VER - less than 0.100 from their optimal lap. - RUS & SAI had 0.200 in their pocket. - HAM had enough to be P3 ‼️ but was 5 tenths off his optimal.

@FormulaPace @dxbestani @FormulaUR_ @FormulaPace what do you think? Also could be LH is running less DW his top speed was 5kph faster than Russell

@FormulaPace @dxbestani Thanks for the video Ali. It’s strange how LH loses so much in the second half of the lap. He’s even slightly ahead end of s1 start of s2. Could this be down to overheating the tyres early on in the lap due to his natural style which results in less grip later on in the lap?