F1 | Traction and coolness: how Piastri resisted Leclerc

Was Baku a victory that slipped away for Ferrari or a success constructed by Oscar Piastri? It is a seemingly simple question to which, in reality, there are multiple answers and schools of thought. Undoubtedly, after a first part of the race substantially dominated by the pole position, the ambition of the Reds and Charles Leclerc could not help but be to concretize and bring home the result.

The decisive moment was undoubtedly the pit stops, including the in-lap and out-lap, which meant that Leclerc saw that six-second treasure vanish, allowing his McLaren rival to get closer and make the overtaking move that turned the GP around. After having addressed the issue of how those seconds vanished in the space of just a few kilometers, there is another aspect that is interesting to explore, namely how Piastri managed to defend the position he had gained after about twenty laps.

Having taken the lead of the race with a nice braking into turn one, which Leclerc did not resist in the hope that he could repass at a later time with the DRS, the Australian started a different race, managed with extreme coolness, because staying with your sights set on it for over twenty laps, on a track like Baku where a mistake is always around the corner, is certainly not easy.

“For me, trying to keep Charles behind was incredibly stressful. I couldn’t make a single mistake. I made a couple, but on a track like Baku it’s impossible to drive 100% and not make mistakes. I was lucky that they weren’t serious enough to cost me the win. The 30 laps I spent trying to keep Charles behind were incredibly difficult,” Piastri said. The Australian driver’s icy attitude is just one of the reasons he managed to build this victory.

In the hours following the race, there was much talk about McLaren’s flexible wing, especially the fact that it can create a sort of opening between the mainplane and the mobile flap, creating a mini-DRS effect. An aspect that certainly needs to be analyzed, but there are other, much more concrete reasons that allowed the Australian to defend and resist Leclerc’s pressure for almost thirty laps.

One of the crucial aspects that McLaren has improved over the last two years is undoubtedly the traction phase, where in the past it showed some shortcomings compared to its rivals. However, it is not always so simple to be able to manage the rear axle, especially when a series of factors come into play, such as the increase in asphalt temperatures, the qualifying lap and the use of the C5 tyre, the softest in the range. A theme that also came up in Baku on the single lap, where the management of the rear axle is fundamental, an aspect in which Leclerc was a master.

In the race, however, the situation changed slightly. On the one hand, the use of harder tyres allowed McLaren to find a good balance, while on the other, the fact that Leclerc remained stuck in dirty air for so long, despite potentially having a superior pace, meant that his rear tyres suffered from the effort, causing him difficulty in the final stages. As had already been seen in other rounds of the world championship, although there is still work to be done with very high temperatures, the Woking team managed to find a fairly effective compromise in terms of rear suspension stiffness to be effective both in the fast corners and in traction.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, 1st position, takes the checkered flag

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

However, there were three moments in which this speech made the difference, starting from the moment in which Piastri’s overtaking arrived, which changed the fate of the race.

In that phase of the race, in fact, Leclerc was struggling to find grip with the harder tyre and this was also seen exiting the final corner, perfectly prepared by Piastri. This is a fundamental issue, because in reality the top speeds of the Rossa with DRS closed were comparable to those of the McLaren, but the fact of having struggled in traction and having taken longer to reach the same level at the end of the straight in terms of top speed opened the door to the Australian’s attempt. If the Monegasque had somehow covered the inside, it would undoubtedly have been much more difficult for Piastri to attempt the attack but, looking at the situation in overall terms, it was precisely that suffering in the traction phase that generated that opportunity that was then worth the victory.

“I couldn’t be very aggressive. I still had cold tyres. I was really struggling to get the tyres up to temperature. I thought it was no problem if he overtook me at that point in the race, because the race was still long and the DRS would help me stay close and then, once my tyres were up to temperature, I could overtake him again. But, as I said, it was a wrong assessment on my part,” explained the Ferrari driver.

At certain moments in the second stint, as Leclerc himself explained, the Monegasque actually felt he potentially had something more in his pocket in terms of pace. In fact, on several occasions the number 16 Red came close to overtaking, even with a speed delta similar to the one with which Piastri had completed the overtaking on Leclerc, or about 20 km/h. However, between that attempt and those put into practice by Leclerc there was always a big difference, the last corner.

Telemetry comparison Piastri – Leclerc last corner lap 30 Baku

Photo by: Gianluca D’Alessandro

As happened previously, Piastri often managed to gain those decisive meters right in the traction phase from the last corner, as can be seen in the graph of the 30th lap, extending just enough to ensure that Leclerc could only come alongside on the outside, but without being able to complete the maneuver before the braking. The Australian always defended admirably, covering the inside, but without compromising the passage of turn one too much. A job that began already in the castle area, the one found in the second sector, where the dirty air affects those behind the most.

“I tried to take a lot of risks in the castle section, because I had to try to recover the gap from Turn 7 until the rest of the lap. And yes, I also had a couple of close contacts in the castle area and at Turn 15. That’s where I tried to be fast and obviously to exit the last corner well,” Piastri said.

It is no coincidence that Leclerc suffered the attack from Perez at the end only when his tyres, especially the rear ones pushed to the limit for the entire second stint, were almost at the end of their life: the Red Bull undoubtedly has an effective DRS, but the big difference in traction was the even more decisive element in facilitating the attempt, even though the overtaking did not materialise thanks to a good defence by the Monegasque.

“When Oscar passed me, I was quite calm in the car. I was just focusing on tyre management. After 10, 15 laps, I thought everything was settling down and maybe towards the end we would be in a better position. But with the dirty air, I think for 20 or 25 laps, towards the end of the race my tyres were completely gone,” Leclerc added.