The qualifying session on the Silverstone track was wonderful, with a track that is what it is challenger for the riders in dry conditions, it becomes a driving show in wet conditions. We have had confirmation of one RedBull more comfortable in wet track conditionswith an always superlative Verstappen that he seemed to have after Q1 and Q2 there pole in your pocket with a large margin. But increasing the intensity of the rain helped Ferrari. Despite not having switched to full wet rubber, in fact, with a lot of water on the track the F1-75 had a level of grip quite similar to the RB18, as opposed to what happened in mixed conditions. The daring final of the qualification awarded a very good Carlos Sainz, which finds performance in the right place and at the right time and which we will analyze in a separate article. Instead, we want to focus on the two main ones for the moment contenders for the world championship Why in the last round launched Verstappen and Leclerc were offering a driving show of the highest level before the latter’s mistake, which also involved the reigning World Champion from a distance. In fact, from the data and calculations carried out, it appears that after a first crazy sector of Verstappen, Leclerc had found an incredible central sector and was on the lead on the rival at the time of the spin. Let’s see the complete graph, comparing the last round launched of the two pilots.
In the first sector Verstappen is dominator, both in the fast exchange of turns 1 and 2, and in the slower section of The Loop. The Dutch even accumulates an advantage of almost 4 tenths on Leclerc and over 6 on Carlos Sainz’s time. In the central sector, however, Leclerc almost accomplishes a feat. The almost obviously is due to the error. The F1-75 looks like suddenly light up in Brooklands and Leclerc at the corner entry Copse has already recovered all the disadvantage, thanks to a mixture of better grip and extreme aggression of the driver. The Monegasque transits with 10 km / h more speed at the Copselifting the foot from the gas of only 56%, against Verstappen’s full lift, proving that the car gives him a huge confidence, and throws himself into the Maggots-Becketts-Chapel series. The entry to Maggots is better for Leclerc than Verstappen, as is the passage to Becketts and entering Chapel the F1-75 number 16 comes to have, according to our calculations, 236 thousandths of advantage over Verstappen. Whereas Leclerc was showing more grip in the load curves, the next Stowe curve could then be a further opportunity to extend. But out of Chapel curve comes the error. We also checked the dynamics from the onboard: Leclerc loses the outgoing line for a moment and ends wide, straddling the exit curb. The Monegasque lift your foot for a split second (yellow exclamation marks) and the car seems stableconvincing the pilot to get back on the gas for the straight. Just the car descends from the curb however, the difference in grip between the four wheels plus the maximum torque applied to the rear leaves no way out e part in a spin without being able to stop (yellow cross). A pilot error obviously, who evidently felt he was in a great ride and tried to keep the gas down anyway. If in all these years we have noticed one thing about Leclerc it is that, while in the dry he is aware of having already demonstrated his talentit almost seems to suffer from the wet conditions with the tendency to exaggerate a little in driving for the need to demonstrate his prowess in what is historically a condition rewarding for the pilot. The confirmation of our calculations on the potential pole of Leclerc then comes by radio from Mattia Binotto himself. After a few seconds from the spin, in fact, Leclerc opens on the radio asking for confirmation that it was over (and launching some understandable improper). After a few seconds it arrives Binotto’s voicewhich he says with a sigh “Ah… it was the [giro] faster Charles … “.
From the accelerator graph we finally notice the moment in which Verstappen is forced to lift your foot for a moment (blue arrow) being in front of the yellow flags for the rival’s spin. This is why the acceleration of the RB18 number 1 in the Hangar Straight towards the Stowe curve it will not be optimalprobably losing in turn the opportunity to sign the pole position.
We therefore lived a swing one turn long between the two title contenders, in difficult conditionson a challenging track. First Verstappen was in the lead, then Leclerc’s resounding recovery, and finally the latter’s error that knocked out both. In general a good show which we hope will continue during the race.
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