2020 Austrian GP: FP2 per sector

After months of waiting, Formula 1 is back. Let’s take a quick look at the average sector times done by the drivers during their race simulation stints.

Methodology

This isn’t the typical best time per sector analysis. Here, I analyzed all the laps done by each driver in each sector and created a simple chart that summarizes the results. The methodology is simple. I aggregated all the sector times in a table for all the drivers that took place in free practice 2. Then, I filtered the data in order to keep only the stint that I considered to be the race simulation stint. Then, I removed the anomalies (according to the Generalized Extreme Studentized Deviation (GESD)).

The main purpose of removing the anomalies is to make the stint times representative. Let’s take Lewis Hamilton for example. His race stint consisted of seven laps. However, his 6th lap was considerably slower than the rest (1:14.328, when his other 6 laps were below 1:09.000). Since this lap may not have been representative of his race pace, the GESD analysis removed it since it was considered an anomaly. This is something that was done with all the remaining drivers, meaning that the resulting times should be fairly representative for all of them.

Finally, I calculated the average sector time for each of the drivers, sorted the data, and created a simple bar chart that represents the results.

Average delta to leader per sector

Mercedes dominated the second practice session, no question about that. They topped the charts at the end of the day and were the fastest cars on average in each of the three sectors of the Red Bull Ring.

Lewis averaged the fastest sector 1. Over his race stint of 7 laps, minus 1 lap removed as an anomaly, his average time was of 17.289 seconds. He was closely followed by Daniel Ricciardo of Renault by just 1 hundredth of a second, and by Sergio Perez of Racing Point by 27 thousands of a second.

In sector two, Valtteri Bottas was the fastest with an average time of 30.364 seconds over the course of 6 laps. His teammate followed closely, trailing by 45 thousands of a second. In this sector, the Mercedes drivers were untouchable. The closest two followers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez could only manage to get within 23 hundredths of a second of the fastest time of the day.

Remember that this is an average over the course of a stint, meaning that if the times shown today are representative of the actual race pace, the Mercedes drivers would be increasing their lead by at least 0.23 seconds in each sector 2 over the course of 71 laps.

Finally, sector 3 was dominated once again by Lewis Hamilton. His average time of 20.561 was mighty, with his teammate Bottas only able to get within 0.3 seconds of his time.

What to take from the analysis?

Mercedes was fast, very fast. Last year the Silver Arrows struggled with overheating, but this year things seem to be different. The Mercedes drivers were consistently fast during their race stint simulations, and if they take the front row tomorrow, it will certainly be hard for the rest to catch them.

Racing Point had a wonderful day. Sergio Perez ended up in 3rd place, in the standings, but most importantly, he was consistently fast in all three sectors. Checo was the 3rd fastest driver in sector 1, the 4th fastest in sector 2, and the 3rd fastest in sector 3.

Ferrari did not have a good day. They seem to lack pace in all three sectors. Perhaps with some adjustments, they can get closer to the Mercs, but today they didn’t show anything special. Hopefully, they’ll have a better day tomorrow.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge George Russell from Williams. In FP2, the British man was the 13th fastest in sector 1, even ahead of both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc. In sector 3, he also managed to beat Charles Leclerc over the course of a stint. If he and his team can improve the performance in sector 2, he can perhaps fight for a good finishing position on Sunday.

Final remarks

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