After an extremely positive Friday, with a Ferrari ready to fight for pole, Saturday in Singapore was truly a day to forget for the Prancing Horse, which did not go beyond the fifth row, with a ninth and a tenth place that push towards an uphill race. Carlos Sainz’s accident in the first attempt of Q3, as well as all the problems encountered by Charles Leclerc in the last lap, weighed on the ambitions of the Reds, who must now hope for a very eventful thing to score a good result.
The red flag caused by the Spaniard forced everyone to return to their respective garages, waiting for the marshals to remove the crashed SF-24 and clean the track. It was at this point, however, that Leclerc’s Q3 also began to fail. With eight minutes left on the clock, the drivers did not immediately return to the track because, at that point, making two attempts would have been a real challenge, thus waiting for the ideal moment to leave the garage for the final attempt.
Time is ticking but, about seven minutes from the end, some movement begins to be noticed in the Ferrari pits, especially around the left front tire. After noticing a problem and trying to reconnect the cable that connects from the blanket heater to the upper part of the pit, where all the instruments and the current to power the systems pass, the quickest and most effective solution is taken, that is, replacing the cable that acts as a connection bridge.
The mechanics intervene in Leclerc’s box on the cable that connects the blanket to the structure where the power supply system passes
The electric blanket has an output connector that, with a sort of cable that acts as an extension, is then connected to the structure located in the upper part of the garage: in this case, the mechanics actually replaced the connecting cable between the two parts.
After replacing the cable, the alarm seemed to go away. However, with the short time available between replacing the offending cable and returning to the track, in which about a minute passed, it is logical to assume that the blanket heater did not have a chance to restore the rubber to the standard value, while the front right one showed no problems.
In addition to having a cold tire, this created above all a situation of imbalance between the two sides of the car, extremely difficult for a driver to manage. This also helps to understand the problems reported by Leclerc after qualifying, so much so that in a team radio he had highlighted how the steering wheel indicated a temperature of 10 ° C lower than the desired value.
The blanket heater is only part of the explanation, because what happened in the pits is also aggravated by an additional factor. Given the importance of the position on the starting grid, McLaren chose not to take any risks, going out first with both drivers, so as to be able to prepare the outlap with greater freedom and also reduce the possibility of encountering yellow flags during the lap.
In the last attempt, Leclerc remained stationary in the pit lane for a long time
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
While it is true that Leclerc was not the last to take to the track, but rather the fifth in the sequence after Piastri, Norris, Hulkenberg and Alonso, in reality the Monegasque remained stuck in the pit lane blocked by traffic for a long time, while the two Mercedes, Verstappen and Tsunoda, who came out after the Ferrari driver, waited longer in their respective pits, thus being able to maintain a higher temperature in their tyres. This waiting time weighed heavily because, making a comparison with the previous outlap, the Ferrari driver took about 15 seconds more to reach turn 7, many of which were spent at a very slow pace between pit lane and pit exit.
Looking at the times in the other two splits, however, the values are in line with the first run of Q3, a sign that the program was not changed excessively, even if it is true that Leclerc still had to maintain a certain distance from the car in front of him, in this case Alonso’s. In any case, forcing the tires too much in the outlap lap, especially the C5, a fairly sensitive compound, could have generated other problems.
Furthermore, since Singapore is a stop & go track, there are not many high-speed corners where you can generate temperature on the front end, especially on the front left, so you tend to trigger it mainly in two ways: with more aggressive braking at the end of the straights and with the classic “zig-zag” movement. The basic problem is that this, however, does not help to completely resolve the imbalance between the tires on the two sides, making it even more difficult for a driver.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
A problem that, on the decisive lap, became apparent right from the start, when Leclerc went long into Turn 1, having also braked quite late. Unable to slow the car down sufficiently, he then ended up off the ideal line, penalising not only the passage of Turn 2, but also the approach to Turn 3, with a lap that had already started uphill.
A source of frustration for everyone, especially looking at Leclerc’s expressions and words at the end of qualifying, with a clear feeling of bitterness from someone who knows he wasted a chance.
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