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View: Pace, accumulated race time
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
X-Axis: Lap number in race order
Y-Axis: Time delta to reference
Reference: Race winner’s average lap
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PACE Timeline — Chronological Pace
The PACE Timeline keeps the race in chronological order, but shifts the focus from position to underlying speed.
Once the race noise falls away, the structure becomes clearer.
The first feature is strategic: two pit-stop clusters. The field does not stop in one clean wave, and that creates temporary distortions in the race story. But through the cycles, the pace hierarchy remains readable.
At the front, the same pair keeps returning:
ANT and NOR.
Their pace traces are close. That is why the race works. Neither driver disappears into a separate class. They operate in the same zone, trading phases by small margins.
But ANT wins the argument again.
Not with one dramatic burst, but with cleaner execution, fewer compromised phases, and better conversion of available pace. Mercedes was not obviously in another category. ANT made the difference.
Behind them, PIA confirms the McLaren form.
PIA sits just behind the ANT–NOR reference, strong enough to show that McLaren’s speed was not isolated to one car. The orange recovery was real.
Then comes the second cluster:
RUS, VER, and LEC.
RUS never quite reaches ANT despite sharing the same machinery. Same car, different result.
Your teammate is not your mate.
VER shows a good recovery, not a winning race. The Safety Car stop was sharp and gave him later track-position leverage, but the pace trace does not show enough speed to control Miami. The limit was probably both car and tire age.
The recovery was real.
The winning pace was not.
LEC completes the cluster, but fades late. He stays in the fight with PIA for much of the race, then loses the thread. Tire drop-off, the late spin, and radio frustration turn a strong race into a fading one.
In the final laps, LEC loses not only to VER, but also to RUS.
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View: Pace, lap time distributions
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
X-Axis: Percentiles and Quartiles
Y-Axis: Lap time in seconds
Filter: 5%,10% excluded for scaling
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PACE Distribution — Clean Pace Envelope
The PACE Distribution removes the timeline and sorts each driver’s clean pace from slowest to fastest.
The curves are smooth and monotonic.
That matters.
It means the race was not defined by random noise or isolated laps. The pace structure is repeatable. The hierarchy is real.
At the front, the first cluster is clear:
ANT and NOR.
They form the leading pair. Close enough to keep the race alive, but separate from the rest. ANT still edges NOR, not by peak-lap drama, but by owning the envelope more cleanly.
Same conclusion again:
ANT wins on execution.
Then comes the second cluster:
PIA and LEC.
PIA confirms the McLaren package. LEC keeps Ferrari in the fight. Both are close, competitive, and part of the show — but not the final reference.
Then comes the uncomfortable Mercedes comparison.
RUS sits too far from ANT for two drivers in the same car.
Whatever Mercedes brought to Miami, ANT extracted more of it.
Same machinery, different envelope.
Your teammate is not your mate.
VER is also clear in this view.
The recovery was real. The strategy was smart. The Driver of the Day vote makes emotional sense.
But the pace distribution does not flatter him. VER sits outside the leading layers.
Recovered well.
Did not have winning pace.
The technical clue is at the far right edge.
At P100, almost everyone converges. Even VER.
That suggests the cars were not massively different in absolute peak-lap capability. Most of them could touch the ceiling when conditions aligned.
So the difference was probably elsewhere:
driveability, setup window, tire usage, balance over a stint, and how easily the driver could access lap time repeatedly.
Anybody can touch the ceiling once.
The race is won by the car-driver combination that can live near it.
The clean hierarchy:
ANT–NOR leading class.
PIA–LEC next layer.
RUS too far from his teammate.
VER strong in racecraft, but outside the front pace envelope.The cars look close at the limit.
The difference is how often they can reach it.
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View: Pace, accumulated sorted time
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
X-Axis: Percentiles and Quartiles
Y-Axis: Time delta to reference
Reference: Winner average pace
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PACE Sorted Time — Integrated Clean Pace
The PACE Sorted Time chart integrates the clean pace envelope by percentile.
Now the race story is almost gone.
Traffic is reduced. Strategy is muted. Track position matters less. What remains is the accumulated cost of pace: who could repeat lap time, and who could not.
This is one of the clearest charts of the weekend.
ANT and NOR define the front.
They separate from the rest not because they own every lap, but because their clean pace accumulates better across the distribution. The gap is not theatrical. It is structural.
Over a race distance, that matters.
ANT still has the edge.
NOR keeps McLaren right there, confirming that Miami was not a false orange recovery. McLaren had real pace. But ANT keeps finding the cleaner path through the percentiles.
Better consistency. Better conversion. Better race execution.
Behind them, PIA and LEC form the second layer.
PIA keeps McLaren’s form visible. LEC shows Ferrari was close enough to fight, but not close enough to command. Ferrari had launch, presence, and drama. McLaren had the stronger sustained pace profile.
Then come RUS and VER, converging on the lower side of the front group.
RUS versus ANT is the one that bites. Same car family, different accumulated pace. A normal race report can soften that. The manifold cannot.
Your teammate is not your mate.
VER is also clarified.
His race was entertaining. His recovery was legitimate. The Driver of the Day vote was understandable.
But the clean sorted pace does not place him in the winning class. He could produce moments, especially at the far end of the distribution, but he could not live in the ANT–NOR envelope.
That is the difference between a great race story and a winning pace signature.
The PACE Sorted view completes the transition from spectacle to structure:
ANT–NOR at the front.
PIA–LEC as the chasing layer.
RUS–VER behind the true pace reference.Miami looked like a six-car yo-yo.
Underneath, it was a two-driver pace fight with a crowded second act.
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View: Pace, accumulated sorted time
Normalization: Fuel & Tire use
Population: Top 6 drivers
Sectors: Percentiles and Quartiles
Radius: Time delta to reference
Reference: Winner average pace
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Dartboard — Pace Fingerprint
The Dartboard projects the pace distributions into a circular view, compressing the race into a visual fingerprint.
The conclusion is familiar.
ANT and NOR form the inner reference.
They sit closest to the bullseye through the meaningful arc of the race. Same leading class as in the distribution and sorted-time views. Mercedes and McLaren were close, but ANT carries the cleaner signature.
PIA confirms the McLaren case.
He does not fully join the winning pair, but he stays close enough to show that McLaren’s pace was real. Not just NOR. The package had form.
Then comes the crowded band:
RUS, VER, and LEC.
This is where Miami got its entertainment. The second group is compressed: close enough to race each other, not close enough to own the center.
For RUS, the issue is obvious. He sits too far from ANT for comfort.
Same car, different extraction.
Your teammate is not your mate.
For VER, the Dartboard cools the Driver of the Day story. The recovery was real, but the pace view does not place him in the winning orbit.
Race story, yes.
Pace thesis, no.
For LEC, Ferrari stays in the fight, but not in command. Strong enough to disturb the race. Not strong enough to define it.
So the pocket version of Miami is simple:
ANT and NOR near the bullseye.
PIA confirms McLaren form.
RUS, VER, and LEC orbit in the second band.The live race looked like a six-car yo-yo.
The Dartboard shows the tighter truth: two near the center, three chasing around them.