As expected the qualification was pulled between the Ferrari and the RedBullbut surprisingly the car that came out in front of everyone was that of Sergio Perez . The Mexican found, said by himself, the ride of the waistmanaging to place himself for just 25 thousandths in front of the red duo. Compared to what we normally see on race weekends, however, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying data are much simpler than usual to interprethaving regard to the marked differences they present. Obviously we compare the lap of Charles Leclerc, second, with that of poleman Perez.
A quick glance is enough to see some macroscopic differences, with the RedBull significantly faster straight, but the Ferrari much faster in almost every corner of the route. These major differences tend to offset on the stopwatchbut hide a completely different aerodynamic set-up between the two cars.
The Milton Keynes car obviously brings a package to the track much more exhaust of the F1-75. Even the Leclerc downforce index appears to us from the calculations to be almost 3% higher than that of Perez, in an area where differences are usually measured by tenths of a percentage, literally enormous. This leads the RB18 to be incredibly high-performing in the extension, but obviously suffer in the corners compared to the Ferrari. From the accelerator map it is then evident how Leclerc is able in every curve or to lift his foot after the entrance phase, to choke less in the phases of travel or to go first on the gas during the exit phase depending on the curve. In short, the Monegasque’s car obviously has more grip due to the greater downforce and this allows Leclerc to have a much better feeling. Such a different basic setting it also completely masks the nuances of driving, which are totally absorbed by these macro-differences. In light of this we would therefore like to make a few additional considerations.
Ferrari complete car – The first is that the Ferrari confirms itself as a complete car and at the moment probably the most fearsome on the track. The F1-75 evidently has a huge amount of downforce available and even putting it on the track finds record performance even in qualifying. This once again proves that under the hood the horsepower of the engine allow ample room for maneuver to the engineers of Maranello. Not only this, however, the car proves to be very fine even mechanically, on a very selective track on the suspension front due to the curbs to be tackled at the very high speeds of the Saudi track. A car that therefore confirms its completeness and therefore goes to run to be competitive on all tracks.
On the other hand, one wonders why RedBull has chosen such an extreme set-upnormally rewarding in qualifying, but particularly penalizing in the racegiven that the downforce guarantees one minor slip of the tires and therefore better temperature control, and less degradation in long runs. Such extreme choices are usually made for a variety of reasons and they hardly represent strengths. The first possible reason is that the RB18 is failing maintain the same aerodynamic efficiency increasing the load, with a car that would lose too much in extension compared to the gain obtained in the corners. This makes the technicians find each other forced to maximize a strong point of the car (good efficiency with that load level) by sacrificing other aspects such as tire management. Then there is the possibility that motivation are not strictly aerodynamic but deriving from the Power Unit. A propulsion unit that does not provide (or cannot provide because it is constrained by a conservative map in search of reliability) the level of torque and power necessary to push the car with a heavy load can force engineers to make choices. compromise and not optimal. Or it could still affect the issue of consumptionwith RedBull who, grappling with the fight to the weight of the carcould be forced to sip the fuel and therefore also to make choices that reduce consumption, such as taking a car with a low resistance configuration to the track. In short, the spectrum of possibilities is wide, but there are much more compromise options than those of a deliberate choice because it is considered the best. Sergio Perez’s words after qualifying leave us amazed and suggest a pure pre-tactic, given that the poleman said he was amazed to be ahead of the Ferraris in qualifying despite the team’s work being addressed mainly at the race. The data seems to show exactly the opposite. There are also a couple of driving considerations to make. The first is that enthusiasm Perez on how much his lap was at the limit is probably also due to RedBull’s choice of set-up so extreme. Driving an unloaded car on the changes of direction at very high speed between the low walls is very difficult and adrenaline-pumpingrequiring an excellent level of driving. The Mexican is certainly very good, author of a truly masterpiece tour. Finally during the session we have seen from the data several mistakes by Verstappen precisely in the changes of direction at high speed, almost always due to snap back. The impression was that the low load has taken away some confidence from the Dutchman, who has not been able to express himself to the limit as he normally manages to do when he has more feeling with the car.
Distant Mercedes with a complicit engine – Behind the first 4 is the Alpine of a great Ocon and the Mercedes Of George Russell. Brackley’s team shows difficulty in the round, with a car that is hyper sensitive to even the slightest set-up variations and which continues to fail on multiple fronts. In this the Power Unit which struggles to express a level of power on a par with the competition it seems an undeniable point (despite Wolff’s words about it) albeit amazing. The presence of the just Russell how motorized Mercedes in the top 10 it removes all doubts about it and this can only worry the eight-time world champion team that seems to have to solve an enormous amount of problems before being able to find competitiveness. George Russell’s disappointed expression at the end of qualifying despite her excellent personal performance she seemed to speak for herself.
In conclusion, despite the pole of Perez and RedBull, on Saturday in Jeddah he returns the awareness of a Ferrari even stronger than expected, which can give his fans hope both in terms of the race and in terms of the season. However, taking home the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will not be a walk in the park for Leclerc and Sainz. With these speeds the RedBull is practically impossible to overcome on the track and it may be necessary to use strategies to try to take command of the race. On top of that, the Jeddah track offers a huge amount of unknowns due to accidentsto the related Safety Car or red flags which can change the fate of the race continuously, and in which even chance could take on its relevance. Nothing is written therefore and the track will have to speak definitively to let us understand if the considerations set out here are confirmed by the race.
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