Me too’last free practice session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix he saw Leclerc and Verstappen alternate at the top of the standings showing a sometimes minimal gap, even if many situations still do not give us a comparison between laps in identical conditions. Verstappen in his potentially best lap he made a mistake, while Leclerc he found his best time with used rubber. However, we have compared the data and this time more than others the attitude philosophies seem particularly clear.
If usually the teams that start from different assets tend to converge over the weekend towards a common compromise, this time Red Bull and Ferrari, on the other hand, are polarized. The RB18 continues to impress with its draw speeds in the second and third sectors. A lot of efficiency and a hybrid part that seems to work very well “at the top” give Newey’s cars record numbers in all the extension phases. From the data it also seems that Red Bull has tried a little step more in engine power, seeing how Verstappen’s car soon reaches high speeds and then plafonates in that area, a typical trend of the advance of delivery in search of the lap time. Perez and Verstappen are also by far the best in top speed during the session, with 334 for the Dutchman and 337 for the Mexican, against 326 and 328 for Leclerc and Sainz. Certainly an important difference, but on the contrary it highlights how different the work Ferrari is doing is.
La Rossa flies in the first sector, the most driven, and plays defensively in the second and third sections of the track, always showing much higher cornering speeds than Red Bull’s rivals. On the power unit front, in Maranello they do not seem to be upset seeing the Red Bull numbers, with a Power Unit that seems for now to follow the same delivery curves seen in the other two free practice sessions. The F1-75 continues to prove that it has a significant (not to say enormous) amount of downforce, which obviously works well in all corners of the track, including those at very high speed, so much so that the approach at a high level is preferred. of loading, compared to the progressive unloading seen at Red Bull.
In general, on the flying lap Red Bull could have an advantage also considering the new tire conditions of the qualification. Adding up the best split times of the session we find Verstappen with an ideal time of 1: 29.451 while Leclerc with 1: 29.690, so just over 2 tenths behind. The question for the Austrian team remains whether, in the case of a front start, they will be able to guarantee a race pace and a winning tire management even with such a lower load level than Ferrari. The Cavallino’s work on the set-up seems to have been done thinking about the race, but relying on the power of the power unit for qualifying, where Leclerc and Sainz will need a propulsive unit capable of pushing so hard as to compensate for the level of load put on the track.
If the blanket is long enough for Ferrari we will find out in the next qualifying session which promises a tight battle between Red Bull and the Red, right now two opposite poles that somehow attract each other, potentially converging on performance.
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