Qualifications data
The Italian Grand Prix finds a good qualifying session, with minimum detachments and fought until the end as expected, even if, in the end, the ranking shows a picture with some important information also on the balance between the teams on an overall level.
“Dominating”, albeit with just a tenth of an advantage over the competition, is the McLarenwhich fills the front row with Norris and Piastri and impresses with its overall performance. After a clear performance advantage shown at Zandvoort, in a maximum load configuration, a papaya front row at the track that requires the least load of the season gives an idea of how much the MCL38 is the best machine overall at this time of the season.
The data from the single lap at Monza are very clear, so let’s immediately analyse them.
McLaren the most charged, Ferrari the most unloaded, Mercedes in the middle
Of the many telemetries that we analyze during the year, that of the Brianza circuit is certainly one of the simplest, given the few curves and the “one-way” nature of the circuit towards the low load. The first two things that catch the eye are how much the Ferrari has chosen an unloaded set-up and on the other side like the McLaren has slightly more downforce instead of the opponents. Starting from the latter, we note how Lando Norris has the predominance of the entire central sector area, from the Roggia variant, passing through the two Lesmo ones and arriving at the Serraglio, and showing all the indicators of the greater load. In the end, once the balance was found that the drivers liked in the second free practice, the overall level of downforce at McLaren was not lowered, despite a significant improvement in track conditions. On the contrary, at Ferrari they opted for an extremely unloaded set-up, as confirmed by both the indicators and the truly remarkable performance in extension. If the difference in top speed is limited on the main straight, the main reason is that all the teams unload all the hybrid power precisely in the very long straight section between the parabolica and the first variant, given how much time is spent at maximum speed. In the subsequent sections, however, where the hybrid is used more sparingly, the one with the least resistance to forward movement emerges and the two SF24s show very high top speeds both arriving at the Roggia (+6/+7 on Norris and Russell), both before the Ascari (+5/+5), and at the Parabolica braking point (+5/+4). In Maranello the hope was also to exploit the strong adhesive grip of the soft tyre with the high temperatures to find that extra grip even in the most driven sections, but the necessary balance was very subtle and the gradual drop in temperatures as the day progressed took away a bit of power from the front of the SF24, impacting both Sainz and Leclerc, albeit, as we will see shortly, in different ways. A sort of middle ground was instead Mercedes, with a particularly balanced single-seater both in terms of load, but also of balance, with Russell who clearly hit the perfect tyre window in the last attempt and Hamilton who finished sixth, but only 77 thousandths from Piastri’s front row, to give an idea of how close the leaders really were to each other. In RedBull and Max Verstappen are having a great time instead. The data shows a clear loss of grip from mid-lap onwards starting from Q2, signalling a setup and tyre performance window badly off target. The RB20 seems to have opted for a set-up in the more downforced part of the available spectrum, but for now the results are very disappointing between the low straight-line speeds and the grip difficulties in the corners. The chronic understeer of the car it seems impossible to correct with so little downforce available, relegating Verstappen and Perez to the role of a struggling fourth force.
Leclerc vs Sainz: the weakness of the front penalized both even if in different corners
On this topic, it is interesting to think back to the words of the two red drivers after qualifying, with Leclerc who said that he and Sainz “rotate the car differently”. Looking at the telemetry data, we note how Leclerc tends to accelerate when he is still going through the curve, unlike Sainz, and we can think back to how much the Monegasque often underlined the need for a strong front end, even via radio during the session. Joining the dots, the conclusion appears to be that Leclerc’s driving style in these conditions is to rotate the rear end with the accelerator in the slower curves, keeping the front axle “planted”, so to speak. On the contrary Sainz is much more progressive, but more at risk of understeer in long corners. The weakening of the front end ended up (and it is clear from the data) weakening Leclerc in the short and slow corners (the 3 variants) and putting Sainz in difficulty in the longer and faster ones (Lesmo and Parabolica).
The race: McLaren favourite but still a tight race
Finally, coming to the predictions for the race, Norris and Piastri are certainly the favourites, also due to the possibility of play as a team and to manage pace and strategy with two cars in front, obviously if both cars start. Beyond this, the advantage in pace should not be at all comparable to that seen in Zandvoort and Mercedes and Ferrari should be almost on par immediately behind. The 100 meters of DRS added on the main straight should make overtaking much easier than last season, and this could shake up the race quite a bit, considering that the strategy will almost certainly be one stop with tire degradation that will continue to improve more and more as the track evolves. Speaking to the microphones of Sky Vasseur said that the set-up so light should be of great help in the race, also confirming the counterintuitiveness that this generation of single-seaters sometimes expresses and this certainly puts the reds in an attacking position. In the first challenge, against Mercedes, Ferrari seems to be able to play at least on equal terms, while against McLaren it will depend on how the more loaded set-up will influence the tyre management and the race of Norris and Piastri. As far as the world championship is concerned, the opportunity for Norris and McLaren is an important one: the level of Ferrari and Mercedes on the Monza track appears very high, and recovering from seventh place for Verstappen this time seems to be a really difficult taskalso considering what we saw on the track from the RB20. We will therefore see who will prevail in a race that is not technically entirely representative, given the uniqueness of the circuit, but which risks having a significant specific weight on the season.
#Monza #Qualifying #Telemetry #Ferrari #flies #straight
