F1 | Data: Ferrari the most balanced, Red Bull suffers the slowest

If the first free practice session had provided fluctuating indications on the values ​​of the forces on the field, with eight riders within less than a tenth and a half, FP2 returned a much clearer picture. If in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain we saw the inclusion of some cars driven by the Mercedes Power Unit in the very top positions, in Australia the partial ranking leaves room for the two reference teams of this start to the season, namely Red Bull and Ferrari.

Charles Leclerc finished in the lead with an advantage of almost four tenths over the other big favorite of the weekend, Max Verstappen, who appeared more in difficulty in finding the set-up at the end of a Friday that didn't go as smoothly as silk. The most important news, however, is that the SF-24 appeared competitive and well balanced right from the start of the day, so much so that it prompted the Monegasque to point out that this Ferrari is in a better position than in the first two races.

The Australian track is a track which, whilst maintaining a city soul, has actually transformed over the years by adding elements which have made it a rather complex circuit with a good mix of slow, fast and medium-distance corners. Furthermore, two other peculiar elements are added here: the rather high curbs, to be exploited in the fight against the clock, and a strong wind which can compromise the balance in some critical points depending on the direction.

However, as in the first two rounds of the world championship, a certain trend continues to be observed in Melbourne in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of each car. For example, the SF-24 continues to be a consistent single-seater especially in medium-distance corners, which are certainly not lacking on a track like the Australian one. Even on the fastest sections the Red car doesn't disappoint in absolute terms, as had already been observed in Jeddah, but one of the main differences is that here, at least on Friday, the disadvantage on the straights seems very limited, even with open DRS.

In fact, both on the main straight and on the stretch that divides between the second and third sectors, the RB20 and the SF-24 showed very similar top speeds. Curiously, in contrast to what was seen in the first two GPs, the teams driven by PU Mercedes did not take advantage of more aggressive mappings, so much so that they showed maximum accelerations lower than the two reference teams. At this point it is therefore legitimate to ask, given that there are no major differences on the straights, where those almost 4 tenths inflicted by Leclerc on Verstappen come from.

The first point of comparison can already be appreciated in turn one, where often during the day there was an annoying tailwind, which clearly takes away the drivers' stability both when braking and when cornering, giving a feeling of less confidence behind the wheel. . Furthermore, it is one of those points where one notices more how much one tends to suffer from understeer, especially in the center of the corner, where in fact both the Dutchman and Sergio Perez showed some signs of difficulty, sacrificing the cruising phase to favor of a better exit.

On the contrary, Ferrari manages to bring more speed to the center of the corner even if this slightly penalizes the traction phase, where Red Bull manages to be slightly more effective. During the session, great attention was given to this last aspect by the Cavallino engineers who, especially with Leclerc, attempted to optimize the braking point to find a good balance between entry and exit.

Telemetry comparison between Leclerc and Verstappen – FP2 Australia

Photo by: Gianluca D'Alessandro

However, one of the most interesting sections is the one that concludes the first half-time, because it gives the possibility to expand the reasoning on the experiments carried out by Red Bull, in particular with Perez, given that Verstappen's day was somehow influenced from the damage to the bottom remedied in FP1. Initially, both drivers had complained of some difficulty in high-speed corners, so the technicians intervened and tried to make significant changes in terms of set-up. However, this changed the characteristics of the car, finding performance in the faster sections to the detriment of performance in the slower areas. The lack of grip in the low-travel sections, as well as the precision problems on the front axle, had a negative impact on the sequence: in turn three Leclerc once again managed to be more incisive in terms of braking and speed, while Verstappen he is forced into a less aggressive trajectory.

This is a theme to keep in mind for the rest of the lap too, because it occurs not only in the first sector, but also in the last split time, more specifically towards the final part, where the drivers began to feel the decline of grip of the left front. It is precisely the left side on which the drivers of the various teams have highlighted the greatest difficulties in terms not only of pure degradation, but also of graining, because with such soft tyres, one step softer than last year, Pirelli expected the occurrence of this phenomenon. In fact, it is no coincidence that the teams have chosen to keep the hard sets in view of the race, given that it is a compound less subject to graining.

There are teams that have highlighted more pronounced problems at the front, while others have suffered at the rear, especially during long runs, so it will also be interesting to understand which axis they will try to protect in view of the race. In the case of Red Bull, at the moment the biggest difficulties seem to be on the front end, with a firmer rear end. Looking at the telemetry references, there is a tendency on the part of Ferrari to force entry and in the first phase of travel, slightly sacrificing exit.

The only section in which there is a more significant advantage on the part of the RB20 is the fastest one of the track, i.e. the change of direction consisting of turns 9 and 10, among other things the one where Verstappen damaged the floor and part of the chassis of the his car, so much so that he was forced to miss the first twenty minutes of FP2. These high-speed sections with rapid changes of direction, where great stability is needed, tend to be one of the strong points of the RB20, as we had already seen in Sakhir and Jeddah.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

It will be to be observed when the riders push themselves to the limit, but on Friday the Dutchman knew how to play well with the accelerator with a reduced partialization: this allowed him not only to bring an advantage in the corners, but also in the first phase of the acceleration following. The scenario is different when you start to drop in speed and it is a “dry” rotation, where the initial input counts more: in that case, as in turn 12, the Ferrari showed something more.

There is a certain enthusiasm at Ferrari, given the signals not only on the flying lap, but also on the race pace, where Red Bull however has fewer references at its disposal. Pirelli expects that with the more aggressive choice on the tire side this year there could be some differences on the strategies side, perhaps with a race more focused on tire management, differently from previous years, when with harder compounds there was greater freedom and flexibility .

Ferrari did not show any particular problems in terms of graining in the long run (although not of particular length) and this is a positive sign for the Cavallino, especially considering that we will move towards the use of medium and hard in the race, while the soft remains more in the background, given that, moreover, the Maranello team chose to keep only five sets for FP3 and qualifying. On the other hand there is a Red Bull which, on this first day, seemed imperfect, especially from the setup point of view: it is not the first time that the Milton Keynes team has made a leap from Friday to Saturday, but in this occasion will require night work to fix a setup that is currently not optimal.

Equally interesting is the challenge behind them, in which patterns already seen previously were repeated. The more the speed increases, the more competitive the McLaren manages to be, just like in turn 12, while it suffers the slower sections, where the chronic difficulties in terms of understeer emerge more decisively. An opposite situation for Mercedes struggling with experiments, competitive in the low mileages but in difficulty where the load counts most, while Aston Martin once again seems to be somewhere in between, once again ready to play its chances on the lap dry.