A splendid Ferrari gets the whole front row of the Grand Prix of You love me. In free practice 3 the impression was given that the Maranello team had a lot in your pocket from the point of view of performance, but RedBull had shown an important level of performance and it was difficult to understand if, in the moment of truth, the F1-75 would have been in front of or behind the RB18. In fact the performance was however very close, with Verstappen even having pole position after the first attempt in Q3. In general, however, it seemed that Ferrari had a minimum of performance advantagecompared to RedBull, a feeling confirmed by the fact that both drivers of the red have defined not fully satisfactory their round, despite the first row obtained. From the point of view ofaerodynamic trim the Maranello team confirmed what they saw in free thirds as a load level. Less vertical thrust than initially estimated, but still more than the competition, given that RedBull keep showing a lower load leveltogether with an efficiency out of the ordinary. Regarding RedBull efficiency with DRS open, a very special fact is that the two cars of Verstappen and Perez were the single-seaters with the highest top speeds for the whole weekend. It is true that we have been talking about the top speed of the RB18 since the beginning of the year, but generally these arguments are made in the relative area among the top teams. Normally, in fact, the highest top speeds are recorded by the cars in the second half of the ranking, as not equipped of a level of downforce comparable to the top teams and therefore very slow in the corners but very fast in the straight, as driven by the same Power Units. The case of RedBull it’s differentas the greater speed expressed in extension is not only a matter relating to Ferrari, but manifests itself than the entire grid. However, beyond the top speeds, the World Champion Drivers team has proven itself very close but slightly behind to Ferrari. The red was shown extremely well from the point of view both mechanic that aerodynamicprevailing in all guided sections. We compared Leclerc’s pole lap with Verstappen’s best lap to analyze in more detail what we saw on the track.
In general, as we are now used to doing, we note the aforementioned draw speed of RedBull against Ferrari’s cornering speed, both in the fast corners of the first sector and in the extremely slow and tortuous ones of the second. We thus broke the track in four by separating the two long straights and the two driven zones to quantify the relative gains in terms of time.
Starting from the two guided sections we note that in the first one, the one from curve 4 to curve 8, Leclerc is extremely aggressive in driving. Using the brake and accelerator repeatedly so quickly tells how much Leclerc was facing the lap trying to almost go beyond the car, with a guide not too clean. In the second driven section the performances are more similar, but it makes a big difference (once again this season) the violent breakaway phasewhere Leclerc further confirms that he has something extra under that profile. In the end, the Ferrari number 16 brings home a profit of almost half a second in the two guided sections, an absolutely considerable gap.
In the stretches instead, as widely said, the situation is reversed:
In both long straights of the track Verstappen gains significantly in the last part, once the DRS is open: over 1 tenth in the first straight and over 2 in the second. Interestingly, the Dutchman makes money mostly in the second straightwhere both cars actually hit top speed lower. The impression is that RedBull’s impressive efficiency at open DRS also allows pilots to use a minor fraction of the hybrid energy in extension and therefore in the second straight Verstappen had a slightly higher percentage of battery to be used than Leclerc, with the speed gap that opened from 6 km / h of the first straight to 10 of the second. On the other hand, it is difficult to say for now whether at Ferrari they have also hit the track more horses compared to the first races.
Behind the two top teams there is a super Valtteri Bottas with a good Alfa Sauber also confirming a Ferrari engine which also works well with high temperatureand behind the Finn his former teammate Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes evidently she was forced to come to terms with the conditions of the track in the choice of the trim of the car, and thus saw some of his own re-emerge congenital problemsremedying almost a second of detachment from the summit. Finally, a special note for the beautiful performance of Carlos Sainz.
The data shows that the Spaniard was the only one to really understand how to push in the first sector, with a nice advantage over Leclerc at Turn 3 and Turn 6, but understandable lack of confidence due to what happened in the last few sessions, he forced the Spaniard to insert a minimum dose of caution in driving, preventing him from realizing the advantage until the end of the lap.
The race will be extremely complicated and the tire management will absolutely make a difference. The teams all said they were very concerned about the front deterioration. One major reason could be that i two long straights they do lose energy and temperature to the front tires, being almost all the work in those sections carried out by the rear in traction. This means that while the rear tires will be able to find one of their own stability of usethe anterior ones could suffer thermal cycleswith the relative pressure variations, at every turn, accelerating the wear process exponentially. The high temperatures and the abrasive asphalt then do the rest, making the rubber management the primary need of those who aspire to victory. In this, on paper, Ferrari seems to be starting benefited, both for the vertical load inherent in the car, and for what is seen and heard on the track. The excellent performance in the first sector in fact demonstrates a very strong front of the F1-75 and therefore, in theory, safer from the point of view of decay, as opposed to it heard on the radio by Verstappen who complained (still) of problems understeer of his RB18, revealing the risk of an anterior weak in the race. Only the track when the traffic lights go out will be able to dispel these doubts, remembering that on such a track a strategy will probably be intertwined more stops with any Safety Car or red flags, factors that will then be able to shuffle the cards on the table at each spin.
#Qualifying #telemetry #aggressive #LeclercSainz #perfect #Ferrari #FormulaPassionit