For now it’s a disappointment. The hot Imola crowd was expecting pole position, the modified Ferrari should have wreaked havoc, it seemed all the conditions existed for a great performance and instead not only was the Red Bull of the stratospheric Verstappen ahead of the reds, but also the McLaren with both drivers. A cold shower, considering that Leclerc was furious at driving, taking the SF 24 to truly extreme limits. It wasn’t enough: Verstappen too fast with Red Bull miraculous in its behavior from its set-up choices, compared to the limping first tests on Friday. Because the car with which Max achieved the best time on the grid was perfect, without flaws or hesitations. He added talent and the difference emerged, even if now people want to believe that he was helped in a decisive way by a trail taken in the first sector. Which happened, it’s true, but not in a decisive way.
If we analyze only the times, the ‘old’ Ferrari from Miami was 1 tenth of a second away from pole position while the ‘evo’ from Imola found itself two tenths of a second behind Leclerc and even half a second with Sainz. Something that leaves us perplexed, so much so that Charles even said he didn’t understand what he was missing, underlining a novelty in the car’s problems: the difficulty of adapting, compared to the Red Bull, in dealing with curbs. We are talking about minimal details, imperceptible to sight.
That’s what the qualifiers said. And the race? Verstappen’s Red Bull (Perez broke down, 11th and away) it might make a difference straight away, but McLaren is more alive than ever and it seems to have worked better than Maranello, whereas until yesterday it had a fluctuating performance. Norris and Piastri are guys who don’t give up, who attack as soon as possible and can have a very high pace from start to finish. Then there’s Ferrari, which is a question mark in the sense that we don’t know if the latest changes will make the car more (or less) efficient on the tires. Not even Ferrari itself knows it, but this is the factor that will be decisive in the distance. Leclerc will certainly attack if the SF24 allows him, Sainz who has been opaque up until now, knows how to manage the car and how to manage himself. The games are on, let’s not despair…
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