Formula 1 raced in Spain this past weekend. The Barcelona-Catalunya circuit is one of F1's purpose-built race tracks, with a number of fast corners and a track surface that's more abrasive than usual. That means downforce is the name of the game. Catalunya has always required good aerodynamics, but it's doubly important now. The more speed you can carry through a corner, the less energy you have to add on the following straight, and energy management is now as important in F1 as it is at Le Mans or in Formula E or even IndyCar. And the more downforce you have, the less the car slides, and the less the car slides, the less the tires get eaten up.

It's the tire wear that suggested the strategies. So far, all the races this season have been one-stop affairs as drivers make their required change from one tire compound to another. But 66 laps of Catalunya would require at least three sets of Pirelli tires to get to the end. Maybe even four. As the tires wear, they become slower, to the tune of 0.2–0.3 seconds per lap. And one way to exploit that is with an "undercut"—pit early, change onto fresh rubber, and make use of the tire offset against your rivals to put in fast laps while they're losing time. Do it right, and when they make their next pit stop, you should be in front.

Splitting the race into four stints means one more pit stop, and it costs about 22 seconds to drive through the pit lane, stop in the box, and then exit the pit lane again, assuming a tire change in less than three seconds. But since each set of tires is needed for fewer laps, they can be worked hard enough to offset that 22-second pit stop and more.

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Among the ways Formula 1 has changed in the 21st century has been its adoption of driver-in-the-loop simulators. It all started in the early 2000s, probably at McLaren, maybe at Toyota or Ferrari; F1 teams are notoriously secretive about their performance advantages. Along the years, they've gotten more and more capable, but so too have high-end consumer sims like the multi-axis setups that cost tens of thousands of dollars. What is it that makes the multimillion-dollar simulators used in F1 that much more expensive, and that much better for the job?

For one thing, latency.

"There's this intimate link between the inputs that [a driver] provides to the car, the way the car responds, and then the driver immediately feels that and reacts to it. So this is a very dynamic closed loop involving the driver and the car," explained Ash Warne, founder and CTO of Dynisma Motion Generators, a UK-based simulator company that supplies Ferrari, Alpine, and soon Cadillac with DiL simulators that can cost as much as $10 million.

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Formula 1 held its annual race on the streets of Monte Carlo this past weekend. The event predates the sport—the first Monaco Grand Prix was held in 1929 on a layout that isn't too different from the one used today.

Over the years, the buildings have changed, crash barriers appeared, the swimming pool section grew, and the cars eventually got too big and fast to race each other properly on the tight confines of a circuit that one world champion described as "riding a bicycle in your living room." But nestled by the Mediterranean, surrounded by super yachts, F1's least-good race is also its most famous and glamorous. After their home Grands Prix, it's the one many drivers most want to win.

Overtaking here is virtually impossible; to see race cars do that around the principality, you'll want to tune into Formula E's visits there. So qualifying on Saturday, which sets the grid order for Sunday's race, was more important than usual. Everyone expected pole to go to one of the two Ferraris. And for the first time this season, the cars raced completely flat-out; with no long straights and plenty of braking zones, the cars were not energy-limited for once this season.

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