Monaco rains
Muse #493 - timely adaptive strategy changes everything
Today was the Monaco Grand Prix. One of the long-standing epic yearly races on the Formula 1 calendar. And today was a fantastic race that made the watching worthwhile.
End of the day, the results came down to the strategy that the teams adopted. More so, the timing of the execution of the strategy as the race evolved. And Red Bull won because they executed their adaptive strategy better than the others.
There was very little to choose from the top two teams - Ferrari and Red Bull and their four drivers. The car performances overall between the top two were similar. After two hours of driving, the top four were separated by less than 4 snaps of the fingers.
That left the race results to be determined initially by the pouring of the “Rain Gods” and the subsequent timing of the drying of the track, plus some accidents and stoppages. And added to it, how the teams adapted their ongoing strategy around these.
The timing of strategy of the tire changes around the various parameters of rain, the evolving drying of the track, and the patterns of traffic from the various cars on the track (and their tire strategies) put Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in front mid-race, and from there he utilized these well to his advantage to carve out a well-deserved victory. On top of it, he also used the track and its limitations in overtaking, as an advantage by defending himself from being passed by the others behind him.
What a wonderful combination of complex factors in action. Car + Driver + Tires + Traffic + Rain + Accidents + Teamwork + Adaptive Strategy + Luck. A treat indeed to watch these evolve and play out. And to learn from.