(Motorsport-Total.com) – How problematic lapping can be for the leader was demonstrated by Oscar Piastri over the weekend in Budapest when he clashed with Carlos Sainz. Usually, however, lapping is mainly a problem for the backmarkers – and not only in the event of a system failure of the blue flags like at the Hungaroring.
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Because by letting others pass, a driver loses a lot of time and may also have to give up the fight with an opponent for the time being. However, under the new regulations, completely different difficulties have arisen that cost even more valuable time, as shown by the example of Haas.
“For us, blue flags are an absolute killer,” says Esteban Ocon. The problem: “If we reduce the throttle to 60 to 70 percent on any straight, you can watch the battery just drop to the basement. Then we are at zero.”
Because the car calls up the entire electric power while the engine does not push because the driver lets off the throttle. “If you do that on the wrong straight, it is absolutely deadly,” says the Frenchman. “You lose two seconds until the car recharges again on the next lap.”
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However, this is not a peculiarity of the car, but a consequence of the regulations, as his teammate Oliver Bearman says: “We understand why it happens,” he emphasizes.
Because: “When you let off the throttle and then go full throttle again, the renewed power output is normal. But it is quite rare to let off the throttle on the straight and then get back on it,” says the Brit, “unless you are being lapped, which happens quite often to us.”
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The driver can do nothing about it. The only option would be to let the leaders pass at a more suitable place. According to Ocon, that would be at the end of a straight. “But if the other is right behind you, you block him a little,” he says. Besides, you can’t always plan where a faster car will catch you.
You might be able to delay the timing a bit. “But is that good enough for the FIA?” he asks. “You never know, and it can already be on the edge.”
For the front of the field, it would always be most comfortable if the other simply makes room on the straight. “But that is the point where the engine delivers power, and that costs us dearly,” says Ocon. “So there is no flexibility at all. That is the problem.”
And contrary to what many think, it is not always just about the golden pineapple for the lapped drivers. Recently in Hungary, even the eighth-placed driver was a lap down. “Even if we are sometimes lapped, we are still fighting for points,” says Bearman. “So anything that helps your lap time is an advantage.”
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