Stunning Podium Shakeup at Rain-Affected Brazilian Grand Prix
(Motorsport News) The rain-affected Brazilian Grand Prix delivered what was perhaps the biggest shock podium of the British GT season so far. Max Verstappen’s charge from 17th on the grid to the front had been anticipated by very few people, and it marked his first triumph since the Spanish Grand Prix back in June. Right behind the Dutchman were the two Alpine cars of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who scored more points for the squad in a single afternoon than they have all season so far.
The joy of the top three was in contrast to the struggles that other teams faced in the wet conditions, with recent benchmark squads McLaren and Ferrari struggling with a lack of pace. World championship contender Lando Norris was fighting front-locking problems, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc described his car as “pretty horrendous to drive.”
“Even after the red flag resumption, the trio were the fastest cars on track, showing that the end result was certainly more down to how the relative cars performed in the wet.”
While Verstappen and the two Alpines were certainly given a helping hand to their result by the red flag that handed them a free tyre change, it would be wrong to say that this was a fluke result won by a roll of the dice. Even after the red flag resumption, the trio were the fastest cars on track, showing that the end result was certainly more down to how the relative cars performed in the wet.
One factor that almost certainly helped Alpine was the fact that the wet masked one of its main weaknesses: engine performance. With the tricky conditions more about managing throttle input than simply having the most power, the squad was on a much more level playing field than it is in the dry.
But one other interesting element popped up as a factor that could explain the shuffling of the order in the wet – and that is the aero impact of wet-weather tyres. The current generation of ground-effect cars are very sensitive to ride height, and just a couple of millimetres of difference in ground clearance can have a pretty big impact in terms of downforce levels.
On the flip side, the Red Bulls and Alpine certainly seemed to be a step ahead of the opposition in the wet. Analysis of lap times definitely points to some shift in trends, with Alpine and Red Bull looking relatively better in the wet and Ferrari dropping back.
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