Friday in Barcelona saw, as expected, a frenetic activity of all the teams. Rain of updates“B” versions of the e cars many laps on the track to validate the solutions in any condition. The porpoising it seems disappeared or nearly in a large number of teams, including Ferrari. From the audio of the onboards it is evident that the effect on the red still exists in part in the straights, but the car it has practically no more obvious hopsallowing a lower ground clearance and a better one aerodynamic efficiency. Also Mercedes seems to have greatly reduced aerodynamic rebound and Brackley’s team seems capable of threaten Ferrari and RedBull much more seriously both in key qualification that in key race pace. And precisely on this distinction, between speed in conditions of low and high fuel load, that the F1-75 and the RB18 exchange scepters. The two teams seem to have focused on updates to look for what everyone was missingwith the Maranello team in search of the top speedwhile that of Milton Keynes was busy finding more downforce on the RB18. Both teams appear to have succeeded, but both appear to have had to choose compromises that are not entirely optimal, which will force engineers to work late into the night to develop better-performing assets in all conditions. On the dry ridein fact, the Ferrari seemed to have more, with a lot of torque, a lot of grip in the key points and, surprisingly, excellent feedback in the extension. On the other hand RedBull, not particularly bright with low fuel on board, then showed a absolutely record pace respect everyone. Between the two quarrels she placed herself Mercedes, second force in both simulations, to give the feeling of being much closer than in previous Grands Prix. We then compared the data from Leclerc, Verstappen and Russell first in the flying lap and then on the race pace to get some more information.
On the flying lap, however, the feeling is that of an important one basic balance. The first sector is to the advantage of RedBull, but not so much for the performances on the straight, as for the excellent approach of Verstappen at the first detached and at the next change of direction. We have already said this year many times about how the hard braking phases make an important difference in terms of lap time and in this case the World Champion finds a nice differential compared to the competition. On the long straight we see an important “hump”Of the Mercedes speed line showing a large advance payment and therefore probably also one more engine step, compared to Ferrari and RedBull. It is not known if it is an absolute step or relative to today’s day, we will have to wait for the qualification to find out. The central sector see instead excel Leclercthanks to the combination of a car very stable under braking and ready for tractionso a single-seater in point of view mechanic. Then stands out Russell in the straight back, with a good 309 km / h top speed against the 302 of Leclerc and Verstappen, confirming what was previously stated about the engine.
The third sector is finally a tie between Leclerc and Russell, with Verstappen which finds much more speed only in the last chicane, confirming one mechanics perhaps slightly softer on the RB18. On the other hand, Leclerc excels in turn 10, while Russell offs all at 12, two very delicate corners for aerodynamic balance of the car.
On the plane of the race pace instead the cards are shuffled. We examined the times of the drivers of Ferrari, RedBull and Mercedes and then we isolated those of Leclerc, Verstappen and Russell, who appeared to be the best performing.
It is immediately evident how the RedBull has an important advantage in terms of race pacewith Verstappen able to do the stint on medium tires at the same time longer and more performing. They all showed a high level of rubber degradationbut while Russell it seemed to succeed to check the situation and then gradually approaching the times of Verstappen, the Ferrari literally went into crisiswith times over half a second slower of the tread. It is really hard to think about what that might be the cause of the difficulty of the redhead. The car has theoretically more load than the competition and in these conditions it should show significantly less deterioration, as happened at the beginning of the year. A particular aspect could be the new ground clearance found with the new anti porpoising fund. The load generated in this configuration may not have the same magnitude and center of pressure processed by simulations in Maranello thus generating a imbalance with high fuel load, when the additional weight crushes the car even more to the ground, which will therefore be necessary to correct. From the data it does not appear either a difference in downforce as important as seen on other occasions and this too could be a symptom of a lowering of the car perhaps less effective than expected and that therefore will need some attitude correction. Finally, in these new cars based on an aerodynamic principle, the mechanics are proving decisive and it is not excluded that to make the new components work, the F1-75s took to the track particularly rigid from the point of view of the suspension, as opposed to RedBull, and that these two opposites they must then find one synthesis halfway through the weekend equilibrium.
Both the technicians from Maranello and those from Milton Keynes will spend the night working on the trim changes in view of the crucial second day on the track. They both seem to have to give up on something just to find the best compromisebut only with qualification data we can to understand what choices have been made. With Mercedes determined to be the third wheel of the weekend result, for now, it does not seem in the least obvious and shows an interesting performance leveling. It will count to do the best jobin a season where, once again, they are not enough the innate characteristics of the cars to guarantee performance advantages.
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