The Ferrari back on pole in France and it does so with Charles Leclerc and with a qualification at times dominated and that, without Sainz’s penalty, would probably have led to an all-red front row. An excellent lap of Leclerc, assisted by a teamwork truly masterful, led to the desired result for the Monegasque and the best position for the start in the French race. The wake game orchestrated directly by the drivers of the red it was performed to perfection, despite being in one spot very hard of the track as the Signes curve, which is done in full. On the subject of the game of wake, it seems only right to make some clarifications. The first is that our data shows Leclerc’s gain over his Q2 time of only 56 thousandths, so not a substantial difference and in any case not such as to guarantee him pole position. However, this should not detract from the technical gesture and the collaboration of the two pilots, who performed a truly perfect “tricolor arrows” maneuver. The last consideration is that in our opinion the game of wake of the first attempt in Q3 it was actually the decisive one. Obviously not over time, but in allowing Leclerc, who on that occasion had done a less than perfect lap, to however, remain ahead of Verstappen of 8 thousandths and to face the last attempt in a situation psychologically improve. Having said that, Leclerc’s last lap was excellent and pole has arrived deservedly. A further consideration that we want to underline is that Sainz’s last lap in Q2who still recorded the second time of the day, was probably the best lap of the Spaniard in qualifying throughout the year with a truly clean and effective driving of the highest level. Car number 55 will start from the back but obviously with great comeback potential, hoping for some favorable Safety Car. One wonders if Sainz found this form on the flying lap this weekend despite the penalty or precisely because I discharge from every pressure. The fact is that the Spaniard seemed in its best condition in every session and in the race he will still be able to do well. Going down to the technical details and staying at Ferrari, the impression is that there is one slight balance difference between the two riders of the red. Leclerc has a car with a very strong front axleboth to meet his driving style and probably for protect the front tires in the infernal stints of the race, where the hot will put the roofs to the test. The impression is that this set-up is suitable for racing compoundsso medium and hard, but that the extra grip of the soft rubber has made the front even too preciseforcing Leclerc in qualifying to manage a rear that he could not follow the front, in a situation that is not perfect and clean, although congenial to him from the point of view of the car’s reactivity. In competition it should get easier for the Monegasque with a greater balance between the two axes. Conversely Sainz showed a slight balance more balanced also with soft rubber. If the Spaniard’s preferred set-up is precisely with a balance shifted to the rear, the other reason that easily comes to mind is that Sainz will have to perform many overtakingoften leveraging on traction to stay close to the opponents and then overtake them on the straight. This means that protect the rear tires moreby moving the balance back, it becomes the best choice. This choice also seems to be the daughter of what happened with Leclerc in Canada, who found himself with a light rear and worn tires could no longer attack the cars in front because he became lacking in traction. Absolutely however this shows one great flexibility of the F1-75capable of bringing on the track set-ups carefully studied by engineers and extremely effective.
Leclerc’s rival in the race will obviously be Max Verstappen with his Red Bull. After discarding some changes the RB18 seems to have done a step back in evolutionary termsreturned to a setting a lower load, faster in the straight but suffering in the corners. We had in fact noticed how the process of updating Newey’s car had gone in the direction of seek greater loadwhich, however, was necessary for this race to abandon because the car became unpredictable in terms of balance, worsening tire wear overall. After qualifying Laurent Mekies spoke of a Red Bull very strong in the race, even if, in an ideal situation, the greater load of Ferrari should heavily favor the Maranello team precisely in terms of race pace and tire management. However, we do know that the energy level that cars give to these tires is often at the limitso sometimes even a slightly lower load level but with a good balance it still manages to make the covers work properly and it takes very little to move the needle of the scale. If we go to see the data comparison between Verstappen and Leclerc, however, the response is incontrovertible.
From the graph it is immediately evident how Red Bull has returned to having a significant advantage on the straightbut as Ferrari prevail as minimum speed and driveability in all curves of the circuit (except the last, thanks to a Verstappen kidney shot). From the graph accelerator it is evident how in the curve Leclerc can use it more, returning first to the gas, as well as manage oversteer more easily at the exit of turn 2. The gap graph (the lower one) easily tells how Verstappen stretches linearly on straights (unequivocal sign of less drag), but also how at each bend the graph faces a clear step in favor of Leclerc. If we finally take a look at the throttle map in the third sector, the most critical for tires and aerodynamic load, these effects are even more evident.
At turn 11 Leclerc (also coming in the wake of Sainz) can disconnect latermanage in a much more progressive the very difficult turn 11 e anticipate the return on the accelerator. Same script for the next corner, 12, and the penultimate, 14, with Leclerc che turn up later And get back on the gas first output. Only in the 15, the last, Verstappen manages to give a small tear, a shot of the kidneys to try to earn a few cents on his rival, breaking away a few meters after Leclerc.
In conclusion, Ferrari seems able to be able to draw great benefit by the updates brought to the track, which return more load e an excellent balance of the car from a race point of view. The Grand Prix, however, will be very hardentirely played on rubber management and on the high temperatures and the delicacy of the balances seen this season is such as to leave the doors open to any result.
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