Hamilton vs Bottas

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For most of the lap both drivers are closely matched, but there are a few key differences and trends. On corner entry Hamilton is often later off the throttle and on the brakes relative to Bottas, though things are more balanced with perhaps an edge to Hamilton on corner exit. Hamilton has a great T3-4 carrying so much speed into and out of the corner and stays in 4th. He’s almost 0.2s faster than Bottas through this section alone, which is countered by Bottas through the tight sequence of T5-8 (slow corner apex speeds generally seem to be advantage Bottas here). With almost nothing between the drivers after two sectors, sector 3 was all to play for and even here they traded blows. The difference however was ultimately made by Hamilton getting great traction out of T19.

(There are two ‘dead’ zones in the data starting at 300m for Bottas and 1600m for Hamilton visible from the RPM trace. Only the velocity in these sections have been corrected to match the curve.)

Hamilton vs Verstappen

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Red Bull typically lose most on straights and while they’re still down on straights around Monaco it doesn’t explain an almost 0.5s gap to pole. A large chunk of that is Hamilton’s T3-4 where Verstappen and Red Bull are just slower everywhere: braking earlier, lower apex speed, and poorer traction and exit total to +0.25s. Even around Monaco the Mercedes just has more downforce than even Red Bull. This lost is partially countered by Verstappen being strong into the T6 hairpin and not losing it all on exit, though it is then lost in the next two turns. T15-16 appears to be two different approaches to this low-medium speed chicane with Mercedes and Hamilton marginally faster when comparing deltas before and after the corner. Interestingly Verstappen is faster through the final two turns carrying more speed through and a good exit out of T19.

Hamilton vs Vettel

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock you probably know that Ferrari have a slow corner problem. It’s nothing new but it presents itself even more around Monaco. Relative to Mercedes every corner apex speed is slower for Ferrari, and it appears as if faster corners exacerbate the deficit as well as corners that are effectively combined sequences (e.g. T3-4). Braking points and throttle off are generally earlier for Ferrari, mainly due to their higher straightline speed, but note that braking traces on corner entry marginally lag behind in the later stages of the lap. Vettel was also not flat through the swimming pool chicane (T13-14) suggesting a lack of downforce, however, in previous races high speed downforce has been fine so this is perhaps a stability or responsiveness issue in change of direction.

Vettel vs Magnussen

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With both cars having the same PU it’s immediately clear that the Ferrari has less drag than the Haas in their maximum downforce configs (assuming that is the case). Through the corners the two cars are ultimately evenly matched, the time delta remaining relatively constant from T3-T8. The Haas is faster mid corner but what the Ferrari lacks in apex speed it counters with traction and braking; Magnussen also quite consistently shifts earlier than Vettel. Through T12 the Haas is significantly faster but it should also be noted that they were also faster than Red Bull and Mercedes through T12, and unlike Ferrari Haas also took T13-14 flat.