Formula 1 cars or sailing ships?– United States GP Tech bits

During the 2022 United States Formula 1 Grand Prix, the presence of heavy gusts of wind was one of the talking points (besides the superhuman race from Alonso!), altering the balance of the cars and even causing Valtteri Bottas to lose control of his car.

Wind gusts are specially dangerous since they concentrate on a specific location, and their strength doubles or triples the mean wind in the region. In the case of Austin, the average wind was 20km/h, but drivers could encounter sudden gusts of 50km/h in a particular section of the circuit.

Having seen this, I run a poll in Twitter after the race. The question what simple: there’s a 50km/h wind gust at Turn 11. In what direction would it be more favorable for a driver? After more than 2000 votes, head-wind in the braking point was the clear winner (south-west direction).

Is it really the best direction performance-wise? Well, the answer will surprise you… unless you got it right :D

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