59th Macau Grand Prix - FIA F3 Intercontinental Cup

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Just to show the effects of the draft at Macau.

Da Costa, the only man who never benefited of the draft during the whole main race(he was leading from turn 1 exit to the finish), was slower than anyone else who completed 2 laps or more, both in sector 1, and at the sector 1 speed trap. (sector 1 is the run through start/finish to the Lisboa braking point)

Da Costa's best speed was 258.2 kph. The fastest guy was Buller in 274.5. The top 15 was in the 274-267 range. The second least fastest guy was Roda in 261.9.

Da Costa's fastest sector 1 was a 24.37. The fastest guy was Sims with a 23.28. The top 15 was in the 23.3-23.8 range. The second least fastest guy was Roda with a 24.24.

On the other hand, Felix was second fastest both in sector 2(mountain section) and 3(Meclo exit to start/finish), which was enough to secure fastest lap(and - I'm looking to you stats geeks - "hat trick" and "grand slam"). For the record, the fastest in the sector 2 mountain section was Pascal Wehrlein.

Source: http://www.mstworld.com/Results/2012/12012fm3.pdf


It shows that you need to be fast in the mountain section to run away from the chasing group. Also, in case of a Safety Car, you really need a mega restart to stay in front.

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Also, an interresting fact, curtsey of MotorsTV: "16 of the 24 drivers racing in F1 this season competed at the Macau F3 Grand Prix in their early years."

Probably this number will decrease in the next few years, with F3 suffering from the creation and rise of WSR and GP3.


(sorry for the triple post)

[ivanalesi]

Btw Mortara still has the track record at 2:10.7 from 2009 and I thought they were going to improve it with the new car. For me Lynn & Wehrlein were the most impressive driver, especially considering where was Wehrlein at the start of the year in testing, it's a big improvement for him.

[Peat]

decent little VT:

[strider]

Yes, that was pretty good. Vimeo quality is always better than YouTube. It sounded to me like Alan Hyde doing the commentary.

[Juntos]

Da Costa was just superb. What a racer this young guy. Dr Marko was right. He is far better than little Lewis W.

A round of applause for Alex Lynn. Fortec must cry for the loss. We all know happy endings are few and far between.

And what to say about Double R? Please somebody tells Mr Boyo to stay sober when to pick up Double R next Macau GP driver line up. Better not to ignore the past but learn from it instead. Otherwise, history have a way of repeating itself.

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Originally Posted by Juntos

A round of applause for Alex Lynn. Fortec must cry for the loss. We all know happy endings are few and far between.

First Macau rookie pole sitter since Kamui Kobayashi in 2006. Impressive.

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Felix Rosenqvist in Autosport: "It [was] hard to splitstream this year. I don't know if it [was] the wind, or the aero of the new F3 car."

We'll see next year. But if it is the new car's aero indeed, we might be set for slightly more processional races for the next few years.

[Juntos]

We did not watch a processional race at Macau. We watched to a dominant race of Da Costa. It is not his fault that F3 level of today is far from what it was in the old glory days. Sometimes, life changes around us and we have to adapt, whether we want to or not.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by W.A Trichlorostyrene

Also, an interresting fact, curtsey of MotorsTV: "16 of the 24 drivers racing in F1 this season competed at the Macau F3 Grand Prix in their early years."

Probably this number will decrease in the next few years, with F3 suffering from the creation and rise of WSR and GP3.


(sorry for the triple post)

Both championships will get more powerful engines next year. It will get much harder to jump from FR2.0 to one of those 400hp cars. Everyone will do F3, and everyone will race at Macau.