The Catalan track represents one of the key appointments of the seasongiven the technical characteristics of the route which allow to evaluate many aspects relating to goodness of projects, especially in key aerodynamics. The fast and long curves they require downforce and balance, and with the reintroduction of the final two corners, the ideal balance became practically neutrali.e. without particularly burdening either of the two axles. Taking out the chicane then eliminated a selective factor on the suspension packagegiven that, until last year, the teams had to inevitably compromise the fit and soften the suspensions, to allow the riders to aggressively tackle the high curbs of the last change of direction, something no longer necessary from this year, with a fairly smooth road surface, which practically transforms the Montmelò track into a wind tunnel. And in fact, the major updates to Ferrari’s aerodynamics package, with the new bellies and the new bottom mounted on the cars of Leclerc and Sainz in the afternoon session. They came from the riders and the Team Principal of the red words of great caution on this first revolution of the aerodynamic look of the car, explaining that the goal of the macro update it is not to immediately gain performance on the lap timebut to make the SF23 more predictable, widening the operating window and therefore allowing riders to use it to its fullest potential for longer. Confirmation of the words of the men from Maranello comes from the data. In the two free practice sessions we saw a Ferrari without new particular performance peaks, but only partially more effective in high-fuel revs, with more homogeneous behavior and tire degradation which nonetheless emerged, albeit in a less “violent” way compared to what was seen in the first part of the season. Of course, the factors that led to this could be many and not just related to updates. For example, the fact of be able to lower the car a lotand therefore to be able to stiffen the suspension group a lotare a great help for the balance of the SF23, which finds its ideal operating point more easily in these conditions.
Good race simulation of Sainz and Leclerc
This good general functioning of the car emerged quite clearly in the race pace simulation. Leclerc and Sainz became the protagonists of two long simulation stints in which they alternated the hard tires (using test prototypes to keep new official trains for the race) e soft compoundsfinding a good level of general performanceand an average over the times which, as far as we have seen, would place Ferrari fighting for the podium with Fernando Alonsoin front of a, for now disappointing, Mercedes.
The times of Sainz and Leclerc showed however an upward trendespecially with Leclerc, who on the eighth lap on the soft tire suddenly started to slow down by more than half a second per lap, but in general with a not as disastrous trend as seen in the races held so far. It has to be done though two necessary considerations. The first is that the mini long run of Fernando Alonsoalso alternating with traffic problems, makes impossible to evaluate the trend of rubber degradation for the Asturian, keeping alive the possibility that the number 14 Aston Martin will again prove superior over the distance on Sunday. The second, is that we haven’t mentioned yet Max Verstappenfor the simple reason that the Dutch rider enjoys a driving and car superiority on this track that makes any detailed evaluation superfluous as for first place. The RB19 is the car with the most effective and most efficient aerodynamics and the best tire management, a mix which, barring surprise drawbacks, it is not beatable on this track. Verstappen was the only driver to even have a descending trend of the times in the race pace simulationwith a last lap done in 1:18.679 which extinguished any even vague hypothesis of contending for the victory on Sunday.
Ferrari improved, but problems also emerged
Returning to Ferrari, we said that an overall improvement was noted. However, it emerged, clearly from the data, also some problems of this SF23 from an aerodynamic point of view. If we look at the comparison between the best lap of Leclerc, Verstappen and Alonso we can identify some of them well.
The first thing you notice, clearly is Leclerc’s difficulty finding performance in high-speed corners. Leclerc travels more slowly than 10 km/h at turn 3, 12 at turn 9 and 8 at turn 14. Important differences which imply a lack of aerodynamic load And a weak front, cross of this project since the Bahrain tests. Sainz suffered from understeer with the new updates in the first free practice session and the impression is that the improvement of the flows around the car body and on the bottom actually manages to generate more rear loadbut that the front, on the other hand, is still unable to express enough grip to guarantee the ideal balance, forcing the engineers to do not maximize vertical load, as has chosen to do for example Red Bull, on the track with the same specifications of the wings of Monaco. But seeing the good mileage by Leclerc in many of the corners, including 4, 5 and 12, the impression is that the overall setup found is well balanced and effectivewell maximizing what the car package has to offer. From the graph we then notice the Aston Martin’s large vertical loadwhich, however suffers in the stretches and at turn 12, more for a driving flaw though, and the performance of another planet from Verstappen, which for example is practically already full (96%) at turn 9. Also note in the exchange rate graph, the short ratios of the Mercedes transmissionwith Alonso who has to put an edge over his opponents in practically all the stretches of the track.
In conclusion, at the moment there do not seem to be any rivals for Verstappen on the Spanish circuit. The potential of Perez it is still to be ascertained, given the difficulties of this Friday, but the impression is that it will be enough for the Mexican put the trim in place to easily distance the following group. If so one place will remain available on the podium. As far as we have seen, Ferrari could fight to take him, but if Alonso makes use of his tire management in the race, he will be difficult to beat. Mercedes appears disappointing for now, but we’ll see if it will return to being in the game and to animate a hypothetical 5-man fight for the third step of the podium.
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