Ruth Buscombe

🇺🇸 Miami GP | Race Strategy Debrief youtu.be/cbgF8xRTpRg?si… via @YouTube

Miami Sprint Pole by 0.222 seconds. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Swipe 👉🏻 Same circuit, same compound, same fuel load. Lando Norris on pole, Kimi Antonelli alongside him, both on a fresh Soft. The gap was made on the energy map. Watch where Lando pulled it out: the run to T1 and the exit of T3. Both early-lap, both the bits where McLaren chose to deploy harder and sooner. Antonelli clawed time back at the end of every long straight. 4 km/h faster at the top. That’s not driver, that’s stored energy waiting for the right moment. Now look at slide 6. That’s Kimi’s own SQ2 lap (mustard, Medium) against her SQ3 lap (red, Soft). Same driver, same car, two completely different deployment shapes. Mercedes ran a map in SQ3 they hadn’t touched in SQ1 or SQ2. The bigger story underneath: these cars are on the limit. SQ1 had Mediums overheating across the field. McLaren and Red Bull rolled into SQ2 with a double-cool brake setup on the Medium, and that cooling carried straight onto the Soft in SQ3, which has a lower working window and runs at a lower temperature anyway. Mercedes went a different way. It cost them Sprint pole. By 0.222 seconds. 🚨 Not joined The Race Strategy Society yet? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r… 🎥 Want more? Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate… 🎧 Prefer your strategy by podcast? We're now wherever you get your podcasts.

All-Rounder circuits like Miami mean there’s no place to hide. Grip ✓ Stability ✓ Power ✓ Efficiency ✓ Miss one and Miami will expose you. Circuit Classes—a new way to understand race strategy—just dropped.

🇺🇸 EXTENDED Miami GP Strategy Briefing AND The 2026 Regulation Changes E... youtu.be/aTF2b-ZOeUE?si… via @YouTube

F1 is back. Miami changes the rules on Friday. 👉 The full EXTENDED briefing is live on YouTube. We get into: 🔋 The new regs — what's actually changing ⚡ Super-clipping in plain English 🏁 Why Miami has never been a 1-stop vs 2-stop race 🏆 The 2023 Verstappen masterclass that started a 10-race streak 🧠 The call I think Mercedes are going to have to make on Sunday Link in stories for the full thing. Or grab the same content on the podcast wherever you listen 🎧 Not joined The Race Strategy Society yet? 🚨 Not joined The Race Strategy Society yet? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r… 🎥 Want more? Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate…

Florida's hot. F1's back. Regs change Friday. Swipe for the Strategy. 👉 🚨 EXTENDED Miami Race Strategu Briefing and 2026 Reg update in your inboxes now and YouTube briefing coming today! Miami isn't a 1-stop vs 2-stop race. Never has been. It's a 1-stopper for everyone. Only question is when. 3 of 4 Miami Sundays were decided by stop timing. 1 by pure McLaren pace. 0 by stop count. (If anyone told you otherwise, they haven't watched a Miami race.) In 2023 Verstappen went P9 to P1 starting on Hards while 8 of the top 10 started on Mediums. Brave call, beautifully executed, and the thing I love isn't the result, it's the statement. Same toy set, our drivers play to win, the rest of you don't scare us. First of 10 consecutive wins. Longest streak in F1 history. 3 races in, Mercedes have won all 3. Antonelli leads the championship, the youngest ever. Russell, 9 points back. If Mercedes hold their cushion, the most interesting call on Sunday won't be at the front. It'll be in whichever Mercedes garage qualifies behind the other one. The 2023 playbook is right there. Someone might dust it off. Heat's on. F1's back. 🚨 Not joined The Race Strategy Society yet? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r… 🎥 Want more? Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate… 🎧 Prefer your strategy by podcast? We're now wherever you get your podcasts.

Florida's hot. F1's back. Regs change Friday. Swipe for the Strategy. 👉 🚨 EXTENDED Miami Race Strategu Briefing and 2026 Reg update in your inboxes now and YouTube briefing coming today! 5 weeks since Suzuka. Bahrain and Saudi off the calendar. We've gone from Japan to Florida, called it a break, and quietly hoped nobody used the 5 weeks better than we did. (Spoiler: they did.) The factory's been awake the whole time. The race team has spent 5 weeks on sims, data correlation, and pit stops until the gun-man's dreaming about wheel nuts. 12 garages, 12 simulations, 12 different answers. Sunday tells us who was closest. 3 things change Friday: battery harvest cap drops 8MJ → 7MJ per lap. Super-clipping goes UP from 250kW to 350kW. FP1 stretches to 90 minutes (teams would have taken 9 days, but). In 3 words: less management, more driving. 🚨 Not joined The Race Strategy Society yet? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r… 🎥 Want more? Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate… 🎧 Prefer your strategy by podcast? We're now wherever you get your podcasts.

Exceptional keynote by @RuthBuscombe, from Formula 1. She took us into the reality of Formula 1, where performance is measured in small margins: “The difference between first and second comes down to a matter of centimetres.”

Two headline keynotes. One challenge: turning data into decisions that deliver. 🚀🏎️ 🧠 Dr. Jeevan Perera (@NASA) AI, robotics & decision-making in mission-critical environments 🔗 datadecoded.com/ldn/seminars/h… 🏎️ @RuthBuscombe (F1) How elite teams turn data into real-time decisions 🔗 datadecoded.com/ldn/seminars/w… 📍 22–23 April | London 🎟️ Free registration #DataDecoded #AI #Data

Listen to Race Strategy Society on Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/7fxf5g…

If you're behind someone faster, copying them means you lose. Here's a lesson I learned one Easter and keep coming back to. Tag someone who needs to hear this. Every Easter I get my yearly photo memory reminder of this race. Bahrain 2017. I'm on the Sauber Pit Wall, Head of Race Strategy, calling the race for Pascal Wehrlein. P13. Slow car. Faster cars everywhere. Up at the front, Ferrari have the same problem from P3. Sit behind Bottas, do what Mercedes does, finish behind Mercedes. So they don't. Lap 10, they box Vettel. Five laps before anyone expects it. Super-soft to super-soft. Fresh rubber, 0.18s a lap of degradation advantage, and by lap 16 he's through. The undercut took six laps and won the Grand Prix. Twenty seconds back, I'm looking at the same maths from the other end. Two stops means 23.5 seconds lost to the pit lane, twice. Traffic, twice. Finish where we started. That's not a strategy, that's just doing laps. So we do one stop. 45 laps on softs. Rears barely hanging on. Me on the radio: wait. Don't pit. Keep going. Same race. Same lesson. Opposite ends of the grid. The "safe" strategy isn't safe when you don't have the pace. It's the risk. That's not just an F1 thing. That applies everywhere. Full breakdown with race trace data on YouTube. Happy Easter 🐣 Don’t forget to join the Race Strategy Society if you haven’t already… 🔔 Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate… 📨 Strategy briefings and debriefs with race traces, data, and the telemetry breakdown is live in the newsletter. 🔗Missed it? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r…

Easter Sunday 2017, Bahrain. I was Head of Race Strategy at Sauber, calling the race for Pascal Wehrlein. P13 on the grid. Slow car. Faster cars everywhere ahead of us. Two stops was the standard strategy that day. But for us, two stops meant losing 23.5 seconds in the pit lane, twice, coming out in traffic, twice, and finishing exactly where we started. That's not a strategy. That's just doing laps. So we did one stop. 45 laps on soft tyres. Longest stint of the race. Degradation running at 0.18s a lap, rears barely hanging on, and me on the radio the whole time: wait. Don't pit. Keep going. It worked. We gained positions in a slower car. And here's the thing. Up at the front, Ferrari had exactly the same problem from P3. Copy what Mercedes does, you finish behind Mercedes. So they went the other way. Boxed Vettel five laps early, undercut Bottas, won the Grand Prix. Same lesson from opposite ends of the grid. If you're behind a faster car and you do the same thing as them, you lose. The "safe" strategy isn't safe when you don't have the pace. It's the risk. Full breakdown on the channel with the race trace data, how Vettel held off Hamilton by 6.6 seconds, and how a Safety Car nearly changed everything. Happy Easter 🐣 youtube.com/shorts/scm11ac… via @YouTube

🐣 Easter Strategy Special | How to beat a Faster Car youtu.be/rA-rer97-z4?si… via @YouTube

**record scratch, freeze frame** Yep, that’s me. Easter Sunday 2017, Sauber pit wall in Bahrain, trying to make a one stop work. You’re probably wondering how I ended up here. Head of Strategy at Sauber. Slow car. P13 on the grid, Pascal Wehrlein, trying to find a way into the points. The maths was simple. Two stops? You lose 23.5 seconds in the pit lane, twice. You come out in traffic, twice. You finish exactly where you started. Two stops was the “right” strategy for a lot of cars that day. Just not for us. So we just did one. One stop. 45 laps on softs. Longest stint of the race. Deg at 0.18 a lap. Rears hanging on by a thread. And me on the radio, over and over: wait. Don’t pit. Keep going. And it worked. We made positions. In a slower car. Same race, different fight. From P3, Ferrari had the same problem. Sit behind Valtteri Bottas, they lose. So they did the opposite. Boxed early. Undercut by five laps. Won the Grand Prix. Same lesson, opposite ends of the grid: Doing the “safe” thing when you don’t have the pace isn’t safe. It’s the risk. If you’re behind a faster car and you copy them, you lose. You have to do something different. Let me know if you want the full story, including how Sebastian Vettel won that race in a slower car, and how a Safety Car nearly ruined it all. Happy Easter 🐣 Don’t forget to join the Race Strategy Society if you liked the Japanese GP debrief insights. 🔔 Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate… 📨 Strategy briefings and debriefs with race traces, data, and the telemetry breakdown is live in the newsletter. 🔗Missed it? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r…

🕵️‍♀️ Mercedes win by THIS every time!? youtube.com/shorts/Fpu4cjo… via @YouTube At first glance, it looks like chance. But dig into the data… That is not coincidence. That is a pattern. So what are they really doing? They are not just leading the race. They are building a Safety Car gap. Because in this era, P2 is dangerous on a restart. Mushroom Button. Battery. One clean shot. So if you are leading, you do not leave it to chance. You build enough margin that even if the race resets… it cannot be taken away. Stay out. Extend. Take the free stop. Control the restart. Case closed …or is it? Why not win by EVEN more? As a seven-time championship-winning chief designer once said to me: the ultimate goal is to find an advantage. Then protect it. Dynasties are built on disciplined use of an advantage. Just saying 😉 🎥 Full Japanese GP Debrief is live on YouTube. We break down how Mercedes engineered the win, how the pit cycle spiralled, and why this is becoming the defining pattern of 2026. If you want to understand how this race was really decided, it’s all in the full breakdown. 🔔 Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate… 📨 Want more? Full debrief with race traces, data, and the telemetry breakdown is live in the newsletter. 🔗Missed it? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r…

👀 When the fastest car doesn’t react to an undercut, watch it. youtube.com/shorts/bEDWcGp… via @YouTube Lap 16, Norris boxes. Lap 17, Leclerc covers. All standard. Antonelli doesn’t. That’s the one you clock. Because if you’re sat P3, P4 and you’ve got the gap, you can box. So if you don’t, it’s deliberate. You’re basically saying “I’m fine here”. Then the track clears. Up to then he’s in the 96s, stuck.
Next lap it’s mid 94s.
Then it just sits there.
And then a 93.9. On old tyres. Still quicker than both McLarens on fresh. So it’s not the undercut doing anything. It’s just the pace finally showing up once he’s out of traffic. And that’s the bit that changes it. Because now you’re not really looking behind anymore. You’re looking at that car and thinking, right, that’s the one that’s actually quick. That’s your call. Stay out and keep track position, or follow the sequence. McLaren follow it. And once you give track position to the quickest car at Suzuka… you’re probably not getting it back. 🎥 Full Japanese GP Debrief is live on YouTube. We break down the strategy calls, the pit cycle, and the performance differences shaping 2026. If you want to understand how this race was really decided, it’s all in the full breakdown. 🔔 Subscribe to the Strategy Channel for extended video briefings: : @TheRaceStrategySociety?sub_confirmation=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@TheRaceStrate… 📨 Want more? Full debrief with race traces, data, and the telemetry breakdown is live in the newsletter. 🔗Missed it? Click for a time limited link to sign up now: mailchi.mp/kentixen/the-r…

Regarding recent press coverage @KITKAT

🏆 Could Piastri have won the Japanese GP? At first glance, it feels like yes. If Piastri stays out, takes the Safety Car, and restarts alongside Antonelli, he has track position and a genuine opportunity to fight for the win. But when you look at the data, the picture becomes clearer. On outright pace, Antonelli’s best lap was 1:32.432 compared to Piastri’s 1:32.996, a delta of over half a second. More importantly, that time is gained in the high-speed sections, the S-curves, 130R, and the main straight, where the Mercedes reached 312 km/h versus McLaren’s 309 km/h. These are the parts of the lap that define both lap time and overtaking potential at Suzuka. Piastri was quicker in the low-speed traction zones, but those areas are far less relevant when it comes to creating or defending an overtaking opportunity. This points to energy deployment. With ICE modes fixed under the 2026 regulations, the differentiator is how teams deploy and harvest ERS. Mercedes appear to be running a more aggressive and effective strategy through the high-speed phases, and that is where the advantage is showing up. So even if Piastri had restarted ahead or alongside, he would have needed to defend through exactly the sections where the Mercedes was strongest. Over a full stint, against that kind of high-speed energy advantage, the probability of holding position for 25 laps is low. And the race itself reflects that. Piastri spent the entire second stint in P2 and was never close enough to attempt a move. The top two positions were effectively locked from restart to flag. So the conclusion is nuanced. Strategy cost McLaren the chance to control the restart, but the underlying pace suggests converting that opportunity into a win would have been difficult. At Suzuka, track position is king, but only if the car behind cannot reach you. 🎥 Full Japanese GP Debrief is live on YouTube. We break down the strategy calls, the pit cycle, and the performance differences shaping 2026. If you want to understand how this race was really decided, it’s all in the full breakdown. 🔗 youtube.com/shorts/5zwWsj9… via @YouTube