Long Run & Degradation Anysis

This module is dedicated to evaluating race simulations conducted in practice, with a focus on FP2. Its primary objective is to forecast race-trim performance and tyre life.

Stinit Selection:

• Min Consecutive Laps: Sets the threshold (e.g., 4 laps). Only stints exceeding this number of consecutive laps will be classified as a long run.

• Ignore Pit Laps: When enabled, the system automatically excludes in-laps and out-laps from calculations to prevent outlier data from skewing the average pace.

• Auto-Detect Long Runs: Click to rescan all driver data based on the above parameters. The system will automatically select all stints that meet the criteria.

• Status: A quality assessment of the stint data:

  • Long Run: Valid race simulation meeting all criteria.

  • Short: Insufficient lap count; likely a qualifying simulation.

  • Inconsistent: High lap time variance (high std dev); likely due to traffic or driver error.

Fuel Settings

Since actual fuel loads are unknown during practice sessions, this tab is used to apply physical corrections to "normalize" lap times across different fuel levels.

• Fuel Effect: Set the time penalty per 10kg of fuel (e.g., 0.3s / 10kg). This is typically based on the specific physical characteristics of the circuit.

• Fuel Correction: Allows you to set a "Baseline Fuel Load" or choose to normalize all lap times to either "Empty Tank (Qualifying Trim)" or "Full Tank (Race Start)" status.

This enables a direct comparison between different stints: for example, determining who is actually faster between a 1:35.0 set on heavy fuel at the start of FP2, versus a 1:34.5 set on low fuel toward the end of the session.

Track Evolution

As a practice session progresses, the track surface accumulates rubber (known as "rubbering in"), which improves grip and naturally lowers lap times.

• Track Evolution Rate: Set the improvement factor per lap (e.g., -0.05s / lap).

• Function: Based on the specific Session Time of each stint, the system offsets the performance gains from track improvement. This isolates the "true" performance of the tyres and the car by removing the external influence of the evolving track surface.

Degradation Results

Final output calculated after applying the aforementioned filters and corrections:

• Base Pace: The extrapolated "Lap 0" speed (the theoretical pace on a fresh set of tyres).

• Degradation (Deg/Lap): The most critical metric. It represents the lap time increase per lap due to tyre wear. For example, +0.08 s/lap.

  • Note: Lower values indicate better tyre management. A negative value suggests the "fuel effect" (car getting lighter) is outweighing the tyre wear.

• Expected Life: A prediction of how many laps the tyre can sustain before reaching the Crossover Point or a performance cliff, used to determine pit stop windows.

Chart View

Visualizing analysis results for intuitive comparison:

• Scatter Plot: Displays the distribution of all valid laps.

  • X-axis: Lap Count (within the specific stint).

  • Y-axis: Lap Time.

• Trend Line: A linear regression line is plotted for each stint, where the slope represents the Degradation Rate.

• Comparison (Overlay): You can overlay trend lines from different drivers (e.g., VER on Mediums vs. NOR on Mediums) to instantly identify who has the more stable long-run pace—indicated by a flatter gradient.

Sim (Simulation):Fuel Load Correction: Force-corrects data to a High Fuel state to simulate the vehicle's weight and load at the race start (typically 100kg+).Pace Projection: Predicts specific lap times based on race conditions—for example, estimating what a driver's lap time would be on Lap 24 of the grand prix.

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