F1: the secret of Verstappen’s superiority in Barcelona | FP

On the track where it is often very easy to make predictions, qualifying was all a surprise, except for the pole position. Little to say about Verstappen and his RedBullin front practically “with the elbow out” for the whole session on the perfect track for the Max’s sensitivity on the tires and for theoverall aerodynamic effectiveness of the RB19which expresses a lot loada lot efficiencya perfect balance, combined with the ability of his champion to always make the tires work in the perfect way and, above all, in the ideal window. This last factor proved to be more decisive than expected (perhaps on this occasion even too much…), in the bizarre Spanish session. The environmental conditions fresh, with the air temperature around 20 degrees and the track temperature around 24, put everyone in a bit of a crisis regarding the so-called tire usage window. In fact, the teams have all prepared a conservative set-up towards the tyres, given the high degradation expected for the race and the usually very hot environmental conditions, and the difficulty in “turning on” the compounds emerged clearly especially among teammates team. Small trim differences chosen by the pilots they ended up making a huge difference in performance, for those who managed to get into the right tire window. Thus, on the track where the cars usually start in pairs of teams, given the importance of the technical vehicle on this track, we ended up having important differences between many team mates, starting from Red Bull, with Verstappen comfortably in pole, And Perez eleventh out of Q2, Mercedes, with Hamilton battling for the front row, e Russell also out in Q2and then Ferrari, even if, obviously for the Maranello team, the difficulty denounced by Charles Leclerc in the left-hand bends must be considered, indicating some kind of problem to his SF23.

The Leclerc-Sainz confrontation in Q1 to understand the Monegasque’s problem

At the time of writing, it is not yet known if there was actually anything broken on the Ferrari number 16, we took a look at the data, comparing Sainz’s best lap in Q1 and Leclerc’s to see if anything could be guessed.

Looking at the comparison, it can be seen, especially from the gap line, that Leclerc does not have a particularly brilliant performance even in the right-hand corners, but actually the big “jumps” in the graph are at the three important left turns, 5, 7 and 10. Observing, it is noted that there are no particular minimum travel speed differences, but the braking phase looks very differentwith Leclerc having it in all three cases detaches much earlier and with more difficulty than Sainzthus indicating some kind of problem when slowing down the car and setting cornering on that side, when the rear end suddenly unloads. It must be said that Leclerc’s words were in any case positive, as the sensations of the third free practice on the updated car had been particularly positive for the Monegasque. His comeback attempt in the race will therefore be very interesting to follow.

Excellent qualification from Sainz, behind only the usual super Max

Coming to the top positions, it should first of all be underlined the splendid qualification of Carlos Sainzalways fast and determined, who knew how to manage a difficult session, finding performance in key turnsincluding the final one that brought him to the front row. The gap from Verstappen is important, about half a second, and it would not be surprising if it will be greater in the race, but certainly Sainz and his Ferrari were the “best of the rest”. Looking also at the data comparison between Verstappen and Sainz we appreciate the strengths of the Red Bull.

Verstappen is Frfaster in a straight lineface up full turn 3, and is better in turn 4, up to the very fast turn 9, which the Dutchman faces again in full, while Sainz has to lift his foot by as much as 26%, one of the clearest revealing data the difference in grip between the two cars. Sainz then drops a tenth even in the fantastic last corner, battling with his car while Verstappen proceeds on the tracks. One aspect to note is that Carlos Sainz seemed to prefer a balance more shifted towards the rear throughout the weekend, so it is easier to make the rear end work well, even at the cost of some understeer in the third sector, an approach that paid off a lot in the delicate conditions of qualification. Having said that, the Ferrari in the hands of the Spaniard seemed well balanced and easier to drive than on other occasions. However, the race will be the litmus test to evaluate whether there have been actual improvements for the red in terms of stability and effectiveness with a full tank of fuel.

Excellent Norris and Hamilton, Gasly throws it away, Alonso disappoints

Excellent performance then of Norris with McLaren, third surprisingly and by Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes, both close to Sainz, while Pierre Gasly throws away a beautiful lap with two penalties. We calculated the standard deviation of the speeds and the downforce indexes of the top 5 classified that we report in the graph below, remembering that there is a direct link between the downforce index and downforce, while the correlation is inverse between the standard deviation and precisely the downforce of the car.

We see that the cars that on the numbers have expressed the greatest downforce in absolute terms are precisely the McLaren and the Mercedesboth especially straight lens Indeed. Ferrari it is confirmed as well balanced but a little more download from an aerodynamic point of view. RedBull has such an efficiency as to send the algorithm into crisisresulting in aerodynamic unloading, while maintaining the highest cornering speeds. Finally disappointing Fernando Alonsowith Stroll finding a good sixth place, half a second ahead of Alonso who lapped with the damaged bottombut with damage caused by a his careless mistakeReally banal for an experienced driver like him in an important race like this.

The predictions for the race are very simple on the first position, with Verstappen who will hardly be even approachable and really risks lapping all the other 19 cars on the track, but behind him the battle for the other two steps of the podium will become very interesting and all played on tire management. Whoever manages to find more performance for the longest time on the various compounds, without suffering crashes or having to slow down too much, will prevail over the competition. So it will be an open challenge between Sainz’s Ferrari, Hamilton’s Mercedes and Norris’ McLaren following the comebacks of Alonso, Perez, Russell and Leclerc from the back. In short, apart from the first position, the rest of the race seems, somewhat surprisingly, to show many points of interest.