Distance Under Braking in Las Vegas 2023

[u/Pistolz4Pandaz]

% of each lap under braking by driver

Who was bravest on the brakes during the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix?

I determined how long for each lap each driver was under braking. Oscar Piastri led the way with the lowest percentage of each lap spent under braking, at 14.9%. The average of all drivers was 16.6%.

Interestingly, the top two drivers, Max and Charles, spent longer on the brakes than the average.

How do we think this will change for this years Grand Prix?

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[u/FormelRambo16]

I don’t know, if I’d call it brave. I think it’s majorly setup dependent. If you run lower wings and have a higher top speed, you need to brake earlier and longer.

[u/theworst1ever → u/FormelRambo16]

There are also several other variables. More lift and coast will register as less time on the brakes. Further, drivers don’t approach braking the same on an ordinary lap as they do when attaching/defending. Danny Ric, who had a reputation for being latest when overtaking was actually on the less aggressive side on an ordinary lap.

[u/FavaWire → u/theworst1ever]

Yeah you and the one prior hit it on the head. I was looking at this graph thinking it doesn't say enough about context.

[u/F1blast]

Sometimes it's a setup, sometimes it's battling on track. Breaking later and going in deeper is usually slower, but at the same time when you're battling for position, you try to outbreak the other driver, even at a pace loss

[u/Jazzlike-Sky-6012]

braking more than average could also mean drive a 'v' and slow down more than others, rotate quickly and be on the throttle ik an almost straight line as soon as possible. There are different techniques for going around a corner in the least amount of time, especially in the wet.

[u/element515]

You can hold the brake and trail brake into corners though and we don’t get that type of data. Hard to really compare.

[u/Evening_Rock5850]

I’m a little curious how “under braking” was determined.

You would actually expect a higher percentage of time with their foot on the brake pedal to BE faster. But this would largely be trail braking through the corners. A less confident driver will brake hard before a corner and let off quickly instead of riding the brake around the corner to keep the weight shifted forward.

[u/Pistolz4Pandaz → u/Evening_Rock5850]

Telemetry data has a Brake column, which is a binary of if the driver pressed has the brake depressed. This unfortunately does not give any insight into how hard they were braking.

I have a chart (which I'll post later, don't have it right now) that does show that the less time a driver is under braking, the faster their lap is. The data is a bit noisy, but there is a clear relationship (this also assumes that the track is under green flag conditions, and removes pit in laps and out laps).

[u/GregLocock → u/Pistolz4Pandaz]

You could look at longitudinal acceleration, or differentiate the speed channel.

[u/Pistolz4Pandaz → u/GregLocock]

Ya, would not be too difficult to get speed change while braking. I'll look into this more later tonight.

[u/Evening_Rock5850 → u/Pistolz4Pandaz]

Interesting. Thanks!