The English weather finally grants a break in the second free practice session and allows teams and drivers to complete the entire scheduled program. The McLarens close with the first and second times and send a clear signal of attack to Red Bull and Max Verstappen. The beautiful and historic Silverstone track is a test bench for aerodynamics, with its smooth asphalt and its long, very high-speed corners, and the track has so far given the feeling of a significant advantage for the two technically better cars, namely the McLaren and the Red Bull: Data shows gap to Mercedes and Ferrariwith the red car almost seeming to keep up with its rivals from Brackley, but at the same time showing how serious the aerodynamic bounce defect is that is affecting the SF-24 after the Barcelona updates. We saw the telemetry comparison during the first free practice session, and both the configurations of Sainz and Leclerc and the effects on the performance of the packages remained almost the same in the second.
Ferrari updated well in medium slow, very bad in fast
The SF-24 with the upgrades handles well in the medium-low speed sections, but is incredibly difficult to drive in the high speed corners, especially those in the middle sector, namely Copse and then the sequence of Maggots, Becketts and Chapel. It was clear that the set-up brought to the track by Leclerc was also oriented towards the pursuit of performance. and not to limit the phenomenon of porpoising probably to obtain a more truthful comparison of the data compared to the configuration brought to the track by Carlos Sainz (the one in Imola) and this has really highlighted the incredible difficulties that the hopping brings in the high-speed corners, with Leclerc forced to control the rear to the limit which suddenly went off at every corner above 200 km/h. A situation certainly difficult for the Prancing Horse team, which obviously has the option to return to the pre-Barcelona package, but with the awareness that this would mean blocking developmenta delicate aspect also in view of the next season, knowing, moreover, as the data show quite clearly, that the aerodynamic load with the new package has actually arrived. The day was certainly very profitable, as Leclerc himself said after the sessions, with an enormous amount of data collected that could be of great help in setting up a solution to the current problem and from there the second part of the season for the red team. We will therefore see what they will decide at Ferrari for the rest of the weekend and if they will be able to keep up with a Mercedes that appeared not unreachable.
Red Bull and McLaren of another category
As we said at the beginning, those who seemed unreachable for everyone were Red Bull and McLaren. Verstappen blocked by a mistake on his best lap, but with a RB20 with competitive potential nonethelessso much so that Perez has finally appeared in the top positions. McLaren instead seems to be on its ideal trackwith a not too loaded configuration that rewards it in extension, but at the same time with a lot of downforce generated by the bottom that guarantees excellent performance in the bends, as the telemetry of the central sector clearly shows. Weather permitting the challenge for the lead should be all between Norris and Verstappenwith fairly similar performances but also keeping in mind Piastri as regards the flying lap, a discipline in which the Australian driver certainly knows how to be incisive. Also in terms of race pace, Verstappen and Norris are equal with an average simulation of 1:32.1 for both, followed by the large group of Piastri, Ferrari and Mercedes at about three tenths of a distance (sometimes even a little more). The degradation during the simulation appeared high, with a sudden collapse of the soft tyre after a few laps despite the low temperatures. These are therefore the bases of the English weekend which however can still bring several surprises, mainly from the weather, in addition to the curiosity to see how Ferrari will decide to continue the weekend.
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