[NoSkillz]

RACE FIVE: Portuguese Grand Prix, Tondela (May 5, 2019)

Track Layout A
Track Guide – Acceleration and Low Speed Corners Crucial; Top Speed Useful
Track Info - Fuel Burn (Medium), Tyre Wear (High)
Laps - 48 (3.08 miles each)
Tyres Available - Soft, Mediums, Hards, Intermediates, Wets
Weather Forecast - Practice (Mostly Sunny); Qualifying (Mostly Sunny); Race Day (Mostly Sunny)

With only three days between the end of the Russian Grand Prix and the start of practice at Tondela, there’s not much time to work on improvements to our car. We get a few of our newer parts up to 100% and our recently developed engine is now up to 93% reliability. Our new suspension won’t be ready in time for this race, unfortunately but should be good to go by South Africa in two weeks time.

I take part in my first Formula One vote, with the removal of the German Grand Prix on the table. Supposedly that race doesn’t fit our car or capabilities as a team but I decide to abstain from voting – in the end, the vote is 6-3 in favour of keeping the German Grand Prix on the schedule. Cool by me.

Lance Stroll has made some derogatory comments about our suspension not being up to snuff and I agree with him when asked by the press, saying it’s something we need to keep working on. Our team takes a 10% marketing hit as a result. I don’t think there was really an answer that would have benefited us there but whatever…not a big deal.

We already have some work being done to our headquarters, with construction on upgrades to our Wind Tunnel progressing nicely and we decide to splurge on two more additions, building a Test Track for 8 million and also starting work on a Tour Centre that will cost us 1.5 million. We still have a very healthy bank balance but we’ll save our remaining budget for improvements to the car.

The forecast looks absolutely perfect all weekend. This track is reasonably hard on tyres so I think I may need to consider using hards, so I take a balanced approach, picking 7 Softs, 4 Mediums and 4 Hards.

PRACTICE –

Stroll is much harder on tyres than his teammate Perez and for me to work a one pit race with the Canadian, I’ll need to utilize hard tyres. Perez likely can milk mediums in a one pit race. I’m going to try to hit bonuses for Softs, Mediums and Hards during our practice run.

It takes me only one pit stop in practice to dial Stroll’s car into 99% optimum balance, surely a record for me, especially since Stroll isn’t as adept with feedback. It takes three practice pits to get Perez all dialed in but from there, we are off working on our Qualifying and Race Trim bonuses along with the tyre bonuses. We get close to our goals, ending up with Level Three knowledge on Qualifying and Race Trim, along with Soft and Hard Tyres. We end up with Level two knowledge of mediums. Still, a solid result.

Practice lap times don’t mean an awful lot at this level but Perez clocks the second fastest time in practice on Softs, while Stroll sets the 8th fastest time while running on Hards, a pretty good accomplishment.

QUALIFYING –

We have another beautiful day for qualifying and I decide to utilize some different knowledge for Stroll, taking advantage of the fact he has a Level Two Mechanic’s Component with Super Overtake Mode. That power could come in handy for qualifying. We’ll also utilize his 15% Level Three Qualifying Trim. For Perez, we’ll use Level three knowledge for Soft Tyres and Qualifying Trim.

I send out Perez first in Q1 and hold Stroll in the pits for a couple of minutes as the track gains some grip. Perez ends up tallying a 12th place time while Stroll, even with his Super Overtake Mode in effect, comes in 13th. Those aren’t safe so we need to head out again with both drivers on fresh sets of Softs. Neither are able to better their positions but Perez ends up 13th and Stroll barely finishes 15th to move on to Q2.

Stroll just doesn’t have the car to keep up with these guys and his first Q2 lap is worst of the remaining racers. Perez is also below the Q2 elimination threshold at 11th. We can’t get improvements out of lap two and Perez is eliminated in 12th while Stroll will have to start 15th on the grid.

In the end, it’s Lewis Hamilton once again taking the pole for Mercedes by two tenths of a second over rival Sebastian Vettel. Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc will start in third.

THE RACE –

It looks like a perfect day for a race, unless you are Team Racing Point and always want rain! We will utilize similar strategies for both our drivers but get there in slightly different ways. We plan on this being a one lap race for both drivers, with Stroll using Hard Tyres while Perez will use Mediums. Stroll will utilize his Level Three knowledge of the Hards and his Level Two Super Overtake Mode while Perez will use his Level Three knowledge of Race Trim and Level Two knowledge of Medium Tyres. Perez starts 12th alongside Kimi Raikkonen while Stroll starts 15th alongside Daniil Kyvat.

Both drivers start impressively, with Perez up to 8th after the first lap and Stroll uses his Super Overtake mode to move up to 9th. We immediately employ the ERS after the completion of Lap One when the battery is fully charged and Perez is able to move up to 5th while Stroll is battling Max Verstappen for 7th position. What an exciting start!

From here, we settle in, with Perez in 5th and Stroll in 8th through 10 laps. We get to lap 21 and we’re starting to see both drivers have tyre trouble, with Perez at 19% and Stroll at 30%. Perez still has 28 laps remaining and a one pit race is starting to look unlikely unless I move him to Hard Tyres and have him baby them the whole way. With most of the race leaders looking like they’ll be doing two pits, I decide to keep Perez on Mediums and will change to a two-pit strategy for him.

Perez pits and re-emerges in 6th, just in front of his teammate. On lap 25, we bring Stroll to the pits and put new hard tyres on his car in hopes of making this a one pit race for him. He re-emerges in 13th position, with Perez up to 5th.

The race is going well, with Perez pitting for hopefully the final time on lap 37. We contemplate putting him on the faster soft tyres but he won’t get a performance boost PLUS he doesn’t have a fresh set, as we’d have to use a lightly used Soft Tyre from his qualifying session. I elect to stick with the Mediums, which will allow me to push a bit more without too much worry of wearing them out before the checkered flag. Perez re-emerges in 4th place but has Charles Leclerc hot on his heels on faster tyres so it will be tough to hold off the Ferrari. Stroll is in 12th and will be in tough to improve much on that by the looks of it.

With five laps to go, Stroll is now in 14th and languishing but Perez continues to hold off Leclerc in the battle for fourth. Vettel and Hamilton are having a great battle for the title while Bottas looks comfortably in third, 18 seconds ahead of our car so 4th is what we’re fighting for at the moment. We have a 1.5 second lead over the Ferrari at this time.

With two laps to go, we take advantage of a blue flag and blow past Daniil Kyvat to open up a bigger lead on Leclerc, one that we are able to maintain to the finish for a very satisfying 4th place finish!!! Stroll finishes in 14th.
Sebastian Vettel wins the Portuguese Grand Prix by about four and a half seconds over Lewis Hamilton, with Valtteri Bottas finishing on the podium in third.

We adapted quite well in that race, with Perez doing exceptionally well in the middle stages of the race specifically to nurse his tyres to the point where he was able to maintain his position in the last ten laps over a faster Ferrari. There’s only so much we can do with Stroll right now, as his car is very weak. Soon, he will start getting some of Perez’s parts and hopefully that will set him up for some potential points in the second half of the season. Until then, he needs a lot of good fortune in order to compete.

May 5, 2019
Portuguese Grand Prix - EVENT RESULTS

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 48 Laps, 25 Points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 48 Laps, +4.538, 18 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 48 Laps, +22.689, 15 Points
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4. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 48 Laps, +37.022, 12 Points
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 48 Laps, +39.508, 10 Points
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 48 Laps, +50.167, 8 Points
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 48 Laps, +50.767, 6 Points
8. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 48 Laps, +58.361, 4 Points
9. George Russell, Williams, 48 Laps, +67.076, 2 Points
10. Robert Kubica, Williams, 48 Laps, +67.868, 1 Point

14. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 47 Laps, +1 Lap, 0 Points


TEAM STANDINGS (After Five Races)

1. Mercedes, 2 Wins, 156 Points
2. Ferrari, 2 Wins, 133 Points
3. Renault, 1 Win, 71 Points
4. Red Bull, 0 Wins, 57 Points
5. Racing Point, 0 Wins, 37 Points
6. Williams, 0 Wins, 18 Points
7. Haas, 0 Wins, 18 Points
8. Alfa Romeo, 0 Wins, 9 Points
9. McLaren, 0 Wins, 6 Points
10. Toro Rosso, 0 Wins, 0 Points

As you can see, we are holding onto the top position in the so-called midfield, with Williams defying expectations thus far. Toro Rosso has really struggled all season and have yet to score a point.


DRIVERS STANDINGS (After Five Races)

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2 Wins, 98 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 2 Wins, 92 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 0 Wins, 58 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 1 Win, 55 Points
5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 43 Points
6. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 0 Wins, 41 Points
7. Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 37 Points
8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 0 Wins, 16 Points
9. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 0 Wins, 14 Points
T10. George Russell, Williams, 0 Wins, 10 Points
T10. Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 0 Wins, 10 Points

T18. Lance Stroll, Racing Point, 0 Wins, 0 Points

It’s looking like a great race between Hamilton and Vettel at this point for the Drivers Championship while our own Sergio Perez is acquitting himself very well early on. He will only get better as we continue our good work with our car. Lance Stroll is one of only three drivers without a point thus far.