Red Bull 3, Ferrari 2. This is the balance of the seasonal victories after the Miami event, with Verstappen who managed to subvert the unfavorable run after the away match in Melbourne. The championship standings still see Leclerc and the Rosse di Maranello at the front in both rankings, but in the last two races Red Bull has shown that it has caught up with Ferrari in terms of competitiveness. In the victorious Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, for example, the RB18 suffered more tire graining than the F1-75, but at Imola and Miami the Anglo-Austrian car appeared superior in tire management, despite adopting lower load levels than the direct one. competition.
Mattia Binotto attributes the change in the balance of power to the updates introduced by the rivals in the first part of the championship, which is contrasted by a Red unaltered from the first race of the season: “I have always said that we would have to wait five races to assess the competitiveness of the cars. Now five races have passed and we are leading the championship, so we must not be disappointed. However, it is true that Red Bull has improved its car since the beginning of the season by introducing updates. If I look at the last two races, they have recovered about two tenths of a second compared to us. There is no doubt that we will need to introduce updates to keep up. There is also a budget cap and at some point Red Bull will have to stop developing. In the next races, however, it will be our turn to update the car as much as possible. In Barcelona we may have a package that will be important to us. As always, I hope that the innovations introduced will behave as expected and could be a good push to reach Red Bull ”.
However, the Cavallino Team Principal did not say he was worried about the current trend that has seen Red Bull recover important points in the last two races on the Maranello Scuderia. The difference in performance is in fact extremely small, while the pace of updates is more significant: “Our concerns are about how much they can develop compared to us, not so much about the performance feedback. First of all, because I don’t think the difference was huge, it was a couple of tenths in the race, while on Saturday we monopolized the front row, so in qualifying we are in better shape than Red Bull. Over the whole weekend, I don’t think there is a big difference between the two teams. If there are any concerns, it is how far they can develop within the budget cap: certainly it is my concern, but even more it is a hope, because at a certain point they will have to stop ”. Development will therefore play a central role in the fight for the title and in turn will be heavily influenced by the budget cap. This is why Maranello’s strategy of introducing a substantial package of updates at the end of the championship, as opposed to the more constant but fragmented development of its rivals: “We don’t have enough money to spend on bringing updates to every race. It is not a question of capacity, but it is because of the budget cap. We need to introduce updates when we believe the time is right ”. Asked about whether Ferrari will introduce two or three evolutionary packages over the course of the championship, Binotto replied: “We will not disclose our plans“.
The number one of the Cavallino also confirmed what can already be guessed from the outside, that is of a Ferrari that continues to prefer aerodynamic configurations with greater load: “We are definitely running with more load in terms of wing configuration, lacking speed on the straight, but gaining a little more cornering. I think that was what emerged today in curves 4, 5 and 6, while perhaps it was not so in the slower corners. Red Bull was very good at being as fast as we are on medium tires, at least in the low speed corners. We have yet to understand why, but in part I think it is due to the updates of the latest raceswhich made their car simply faster ”. Then entering into the merits of the Miami race, Binotto explained the choice not to take advantage of the Safety Car to mount new tires with their drivers: “It was a choice that took into account the tire warm-up. Our used tires tend to perform better than the new hard ones, which were the ones we had available in the garage. We therefore decided to stay out, because we thought it was the best thing to have a good warm-up and then attack Verstappen in the early laps, which is what happened. The first opportunity for Charles was on the first lap after the return of the Safety Car, even if it did not go well, but he was still very close. The same choice was made for Carlos, to try to defend himself from Checo with the new averages ”.
Leclerc reflected on his performance in Florida and on any missed opportunities in the assault on Verstappen in the final, but overall the Monegasque believes the victory of his rivals deserved: “Honestly, maybe right after the Safety Car there was an opportunity to attack, but the absence of the DRS made our life more difficult. On average, however, it was clear that they were stronger. I knew that with the tough we had the pace to fight for it, but with the gap that had opened up after the stint in the medium it was very difficult to recover. With the Safety Car I believed it for a couple of laps, but after the DRS was activated the situation gradually improved for Max ”. While chasing the final laps, Charles hard hit a curb at the chicane of the narrow second sector toboggan, but the episode had no impact on the behavior of his F1-75: “Yes, I hit the curb hard. I think that on the first lap Max did it too. These cars are so big that 5cm can make a difference and even the curbs, as they are made, are a treacherous part of the track. It was quite a violent blow, but it had no particular impact on my hopes of overtaking Verstappen. I think I had the best chance on lap two after the safety car came back, but I didn’t have the DRS. Overall, however, Max and Red Bull deserved to win, they were faster than us ”. Like Binotto, Leclerc also does not express concern for the two defeats remedied in Imola and Miami: “There is no worry. For sure they have improved and everyone expected them to, they are a great team, it’s no surprise. However, I have faith in my team and am confident that we will introduce updates that will bring us back. We are working well and we have already done so in the last two years to get back to the top. I hope these updates will help us to challenge Red Bull again ”.
Carlos Sainz was instead the author of a great defensive drive in the final, sending back to the sender the lunges of Sergio Perez, strong on new medium tires after the entry of the Safety Car: “It was definitely tough, with the new medium tires versus the hard used ones. I knew that during the warm-up in the first laps I would be in better shape and that I would have had a good chance of staying in front: I think on a couple of occasions you have seen me skating out of the last corner during the Safety Car. It was tough, but I think we did a great job of managing the battery to conserve energy for where the main overtaking opportunities were. I expected that he would be able to pass it considering the tires, but as Charles always says, you never stop pushing, believing in it and putting yourself out there. In the end, we grabbed a podium which, considering the last two races, is an injection of confidence in view of Spain ”. The defense of the Spaniard in the final is contrasted by a stint on hard tires in which the gap from the leading duo has progressively increased, a decrease partly due to physical difficulties: “No, there was no balance problem with the hard tires. We couldn’t keep up with Verstappen in middle school, but on my part I didn’t feel 100% physically at the end of the first stint and in the final five laps I started to have a sore neck as a result of Friday’s accident and I couldn’t push hard. I won’t use it as an excuse, but it’s also about getting your neck and body used to these new cars. It has been a month since I had last completed the entire race distance. This, combined with the accident on Friday, probably did not allow me to push as far as possible to the Safety Car ”.
The Scuderia is now returning to Maranello for less than two weeks before leaving for Spain. These will be hectic days for the Gestione Sportiva, where work is in full swing to complete the evolution package anticipated by Binotto in time for the Barcelona race. Leadership in the world rankings frees the team from any pressures and anxieties, but the recent growth of rivals cannot be ignored.
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