The Dutch Grand Prix brought Formula 1 activity back on track, and McLaren’s pursuit of the top spot got off to a flying start. Lando Norris’s outright domination at Max Verstappen’s home race came in an updated MCL38 and with the impression that, once again, the upgrades brought to the track by the Woking team were perfect. The papaya single-seater was undoubtedly the dominator of the weekend, to which only a duller Piastri denied at least a double podium, but it is right to look with an even deeper level of attention at the McLaren dominance seen on the track.
McLaren: great balance in all conditions, low set-up, fast and gentle on the tyres
The first premise is that the conditions changed significantly throughout the weekend, starting with the rain and cold on Friday, passing through the 20 degrees on Saturday, to reach the 30 degrees of asphalt temperature during the race. In all these conditions the updated MCL38 has always shown to have no problems, and indeed to have more performance than all the competition. The Dutch track made it a key factor to hit the tyre usage windowand the ability to do so in any condition is the prerogative of a car that responds perfectly to the input of drivers and engineers, also confirming the amazing correlation between simulation and track that characterizes this phase of continuous growth of the team led by Andrea Stella. We also saw how the single-seater continued to improve, also by unloading the aerodynamics between Friday and Saturday and giving Norris excellent speed ideas. From the analysis of the data it emerges that for most of the race the British driver carefully managed the tires in the high-speed corners, to then exploit the better grip of his car in the long corners and in the traction phases, with the age-old problem of overheating of the rear evidently completely overcome. Obviously, the great performance of Norris must be underlined, who has in the management of the car in the race one of his best weapons. The Woking single-seater, beyond a certainly happy weekend on a friendly track, no longer seems to have weak points and remains the absolute favorite to win (at least) the constructors’ title.
Winning Exhaust Set-up, The Dutch Anomaly And The Possible Explanation
One thing we did notice, in general, is how the cars that had opted for a lighter set-up had a great benefit in the race. Between Norris and Piastri, for example, from the qualifying data, we had noticed a greater downforce chosen for the Australian (probably with the idea that a greater load would have helped him in terms of tyre management), but in the end it was seen that Piastri’s pace was not up to that of his teammate. Even at Red Bull the two drivers had a markedly different set-up, with Verstappen visibly more loaded than Sergio Perez, and with the Mexican who overall found a decent performance compared to many of the last races. Ferrari itself, struggling with a lack of load in this phase of the championship, lit up in the race in a completely unexpected way confirming the improved behaviour of the cars that took to the track without maximum aerodynamic downforce.
Looking at the average telemetry graph, it is also clear how Verstappen lost to Norris precisely in all the straight sections of the track, held back by a resistance to advancement that was evidently too high. In a race where it was important to know how to manage the tires properly, the fact that the lower load provided better performance seems a contradiction, but the explanations in our opinion are found first of all in the change in conditions: the hot track but the cool air allowed the drivers to bring the tyres up to temperature without the risk of overheating them too much for sliding, and above all once the operating window was centered a multiplier effect was triggered, in which the great grip returned by the rubber used in ideal conditions in turn limited sliding, even more than a few load points. Once this balance was guessed, it was possible to obtain, as Norris did, but also the two Ferraris, performance and grip without running into the problems of overheating. The moderate heat of the asphalt also prevented the hard tyres from suffering from grainingmaking them ideal for the long second stint. This proved to be a great help for Ferrari: the SF24 continues to show enormous difficulties with the softer compounds, if only due to the greater movement of the shoulder and carcass of the tyre which generate disturbances to the aerodynamic system of the red car. Being able to run almost the entire race on the hard tyre without any problems eliminated this problem and helped the Maranello team even more to find the podium.completely unexpected on the eve. In the second stint, Carlos Sainz even recorded an average of “just” a couple of tenths from Norris, confirming that Ferrari is definitely in good shape on race pace, thanks also to what has been analyzed so far.
The “Vasseur plan” was created for the red one
At Ferrari, there is certainly no reason to jump for joy, given the half-minute gap to Norris, but things certainly went much better in the race than expected, and, listening to the interviews, much better than the Prancing Horse men themselves had predicted. The mantra repeated by Vasseur several times on the eve of the race was that it was absolutely necessary to obtain the maximum possible points even on difficult weekends. and this time the team has undoubtedly succeeded in an excellent way. Leclerc’s podium, arrived with a great race by the Monegasque and with a perfect strategy from the Ferrari pit wall, and the excellent comeback by Carlos Sainz meant that the Maranello team took home just one point less than Red Bull in the constructors’ standings, and a good 15 more than a Mercedes in a decidedly negative weekend, which took to the track with a totally wrong choice of set-up, which took Russell and Hamilton out of the ideal operating window of the tyre (especially the hard compound) forcing them to make a double stop to try to exploit a final stint with the soft tyre. An interesting note on Leclerc’s strategy comes from the words of Andrea Stella, who revealed after the race that the team did not try to protect Piastri from the Monegasque’s undercut because they wanted to avoid starting the waltz of pit stops too early with the risk of putting Norris in front in difficulty. The gap opened by the McLaren drivers was somehow underlined by the two Ferrari drivers after the race, with Leclerc asking Verstappen directly how much he was behind Norris and the Englishman how much his pace was at the end of the race, while Sainz spoke in interviews of a “McLaren hard to beat at Monza, but the others are not far behind”. The doubt that seems to be hovering in the minds of the red drivers is whether what is in fact a technical crisis for Red Bull is leaving room for another papaya-colored domination.
Updates at Monza for Ferrari, an unusual choice but with evident “structural” intentions
This seems plausible given the effectiveness of the work of the Woking team, but the gap that now appears to be opened by Stella and his teammates is also due to the stops of their opponents, who have, in turn, always made at least one mistake in the updates. From what has now been announced, the next to try to make a leap forward will be Ferrari, both at Monza and in the following races. The fact that the Brianza track has been chosen for the next innovations of the red car appears technically unusual, given the unique characteristics of the track. However, this could mean that the upcoming changes will have a broad resonance, which concern the aero-mechanical bases of the car and are not only aimed at increasing the load or making up for specific deficiencies. The wait for the Italian Grand Prix is short, so we will find out very soon.
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