10-08-2020, 12:07 AM
I had been working on a Lap Time Comparison Excel workbook a few weeks ago, that would basically be able to compare lap times from different drivers/cars/setups and allow me to do some analysis on those times. I had started it the week of the Estonia 25 series at New Jersey Motorsports Park to be precise, I was comparing three different setups for that car and track combo. I wanted the sheet to be more than just looking at the fastest lap, which could happen to be done when a driver just lucked out and was not repeatable. It would calculate averages, deltas from the best/average and much more. Initially I thought it would only take about a week or two, but then I started getting more ideas on features to add and it became an entirely different beast. I have a habit of overdoing things just a bit. It would not surprise me if there are other (better) tools online than this workbook, but I wanted to create and customise the workbook to show the information that I wanted to know (I also needed to practise and refresh some of my Excel skills, so it was a good excuse/project to work on). Unfortunately, I had to take a break from it for a few weeks, so I have not finished the design of the workbook, but it already has most of the functionality that I wanted for it. I also have an incomplete tutorial document on how to read, edit and customise the workbook that I need to finish as well. When the workbook and tutorial document is all done, I plan on creating an individual thread on the forums for it. Since this is an incomplete demo which currently compares the times of the 70s F1 race at Silverstone, I decided to put it up here as some people might be interested in it.
If you are interested, download the zipfile attached to this post and extract the Excel workbook called LapTimeComparison_F170s_Silverstone67_SRSRace20201007_1900GMT.xlsx.
It compares the laps of five of the drivers in the F1 70s race at Silverstone that we just did. The sheet stores the times as follows
· Stint 1: Myself (finished 6th)
· Stint 2: Michal Ringes (finished 1st)
· Stint 3: Matteo Venuti (finished 2nd)
· Stint 4: Robert Duplantier (finished 5th, best Lotus 72D result)
· Stint 5: Max Spied (finished 12th, roughly midpack)
which I think is a useful spread of the drivers in the race and includes information on the two best performances of each car. Feel free to replace my times with yours, so you can compare your lap times instead. To do so, copy your times from the standings which are all stored in the first sheet called “Retrieve_Lap_Times”, and paste them into the times for stint 1 in the second sheet called “Stint_Collection”. Or else manually write them into stint 1 of “Stint_Collection”, but I would not advise this as it takes ages. The workbook will automatically update the comparison sheets (“Key_Information_Comparison”, “Full_Lap_Comparison”, “Sector_1_Comparison”, “Sector_2_Comparison” and “Sector_3_Comparison”) to read these times and do the calculations, so you should not need to do anything else. Do not paste times into the comparison sheets as you will break the formula in these sheets and they will no longer update automatically.
To keep this post from going on much longer, I have also included in the zip file an intermediate tutorial document for the workbook to explain a few more things instead of writing it here. It is very brief and does not go into nearly much detail as the actual tutorial document will, but hopefully it will do. If there are any key features that you think that are missing or have any advice on the layout of the Excel sheet then let me know (maybe PM me so it doesn’t clog up this thread). Since I created the workbook, what I find clear to read might not be true for someone who has never seen the workbook before. I’m pretty happy with how the workbook is at the moment, so hopefully others will find it useful/interesting.
If you are interested, download the zipfile attached to this post and extract the Excel workbook called LapTimeComparison_F170s_Silverstone67_SRSRace20201007_1900GMT.xlsx.
It compares the laps of five of the drivers in the F1 70s race at Silverstone that we just did. The sheet stores the times as follows
· Stint 1: Myself (finished 6th)
· Stint 2: Michal Ringes (finished 1st)
· Stint 3: Matteo Venuti (finished 2nd)
· Stint 4: Robert Duplantier (finished 5th, best Lotus 72D result)
· Stint 5: Max Spied (finished 12th, roughly midpack)
which I think is a useful spread of the drivers in the race and includes information on the two best performances of each car. Feel free to replace my times with yours, so you can compare your lap times instead. To do so, copy your times from the standings which are all stored in the first sheet called “Retrieve_Lap_Times”, and paste them into the times for stint 1 in the second sheet called “Stint_Collection”. Or else manually write them into stint 1 of “Stint_Collection”, but I would not advise this as it takes ages. The workbook will automatically update the comparison sheets (“Key_Information_Comparison”, “Full_Lap_Comparison”, “Sector_1_Comparison”, “Sector_2_Comparison” and “Sector_3_Comparison”) to read these times and do the calculations, so you should not need to do anything else. Do not paste times into the comparison sheets as you will break the formula in these sheets and they will no longer update automatically.
To keep this post from going on much longer, I have also included in the zip file an intermediate tutorial document for the workbook to explain a few more things instead of writing it here. It is very brief and does not go into nearly much detail as the actual tutorial document will, but hopefully it will do. If there are any key features that you think that are missing or have any advice on the layout of the Excel sheet then let me know (maybe PM me so it doesn’t clog up this thread). Since I created the workbook, what I find clear to read might not be true for someone who has never seen the workbook before. I’m pretty happy with how the workbook is at the moment, so hopefully others will find it useful/interesting.