Singapore GP Telemetry: Ferrari Great But Fifth, Whose Fault Is It?

A title-winning McLaren

In the end, the Singapore Grand Prix will certainly not go down in history for its fun and surprises during the race. On the front overtaking something more than in the past, with the addition of the fourth DRS zone, happened, but in general the race respected for the most part a script that is quite easy to guess on the eve.

Landon Norrisin fact, after finally managing to hold the first position on the first lap (and this, in fact, is already news), he said goodbye to the group and went took off on a totally solitary escapewhich showed, on a track which was not very selective on the aerodynamic front, the performance level literally astronomical on which the McLaren.

Norris lapped everyone up to eighthon a track of about 5 km from the lap of about 1 minute and 40, a remarkable figure, if we consider that recently it almost never happened given the greater compactness of the grid, a real and proper domination. Behind him a great Verstappenwho finds a performance worthy of his level, with a RB20 unable to keep up with the MCL38, but nevertheless revolutionised from Friday to Saturday in a way that made it manageable by the three-time Dutch World Champion.

RedBull: Aerodynamics-Prizing Set-Up Helps Verstappen But Hurts Perez

Milton Keynes engineers’ choice of shift the balance from mechanics to aerodynamicsby loading the latter a lot and stiffening the suspension groups, he gave Verstappen a car that reacted as he expected and this was enough to manage it with caution a second place which, in a world perspective, is truly worth a victoryconsidering the premises of the weekend. In the next box Sergio Perez instead returns to having a nightmare weekend, starting from qualifying and then arriving at a dull race, unable to find the necessary spark to attack the Haas of an excellent Nico Hulkenberg also because, as the Mexican pointed out on the radio, the rigid set-up generated such a hopping on the roughness of the asphalt, that finding good traction on the exit of the curve was (for him) practically impossible.

Mercedes confused, fourth force on track, but exploits Ferrari debacle

Verstappen easily got the better of Oscar Piastri and the Mercedes, with the Australian, after throwing away the front row in qualifying with a mistake at the penultimate corner, suffering the entire first stint behind George Russell. The Brackley team had a mixed approach and not entirely “clear” and lucid at the Singapore weekend. The rather unloaded set-up brought to the track seemed somehow pay off in terms of lap time with great ideas in traction and extension that compensated for the deficits in the various slow sections. On the other hand, however, the W15 shone seriously alone with Hamilton on his qualifying lap and then he never gave the impression of having the pace of the first. Even the strategy Hamilton’s choice at the start of the race, that of starting with soft tyres, did not seem entirely understandable given that Russell was starting behind the 7-time world champion and for Hamilton it then turned into a bit of an ordeal, with an incredibly long second stint and finishing in sixth position after starting third and leaving the way open to Piastri, Russell and Leclerc. It is not the first time this year that the Brackley strategists have invented something not very profitable, and it happens especially when the impression is that they do not have a clear idea of ​​the operating windows and arrangements. Overall the Mercedes set-up cannot probably be defined as “wrong”, but compared to those in front and to the Ferrari they were clearly the slowestHowever, they finished with a higher number of points than the red team, thanks to the total blackout on Saturday for the Maranello team, which was only partially recovered with an excellent race.

Ferrari: the race is great, but the weekend is not, but whose real responsibilities are?

The analysis on Ferrari is actually very simple this time. The SF24 was likely the second force on the trackperhaps potentially in contention with Norris, but more likely immediately behindahead of or fighting with Max Verstappen. Clearly everything was ruined by the qualificationwith Sainz against the wall and Leclerc to whom everything we saw on Saturday happened. The race of the reds was, in reality, one of the best of the yearwith both drivers on different strategies from the drivers around them, but both times getting it right, with the possibility of recovering positions. It is interesting to note that the average lap times of the second stint is almost equal to a cent Between Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclercbut obviously everyone had different conditionswith Norris and Verstappen decidedly more in control, while Leclerc was busy recovering from Russell with fresher tyres, but also suffering his “block” at the end of the race when he couldn’t pass. Frederick Vasseur said he was convinced that the pace of the reds was comparable to Norris’sbut we still have some doubts as to whether the Englishman was really attackable, given the state of grace in which he lived throughout the weekend. Obviously Ferrari threw away an important occasion nonethelesseven just for the podium and to score a lot of points in the standings. Given Leclerc’s statements after the race in which he ate his words from the previous day, on the responsibilities for what happened in Monaco some doubts remain. Surely, in hindsight, even just avoiding itrack limits at the beginning of the lap he would have helped with 2 positions on the grid, ending up starting right in front of Alonso, which would have allowed him to stay close to the podium zone, instead of leaving it to the leading group half a minute lead in the first stint. In the qualifying lap, Leclerc was indeed lacking grip in the first sector, so something with the tyres seems to have happened right from the pit exit, but the “all or nothing” mentality of the Monegasque, who evidently lost lucidity in his lap, annoyed by what happened with the tyre preparation, in such a tight Formula 1 is not in turn a harbinger of good results.

In Austin for final checks, with a month of work with factories open

Formula 1 now faces a second break of about a month, on par with the summer one but with the fundamental difference that there is no mandatory company closure. This means that teams will be able to continue to develop to bring on track what will likely be the latest round of updates on a perfect track to test them: the Texan track is in fact very selective on the aerodynamic front, with many long and fast corners, and mechanically, with an asphalt and kerbs that are always complicated to manage, from there we will understand what to expect for the end of the season and who will really be the favorite for the titles, even if at the moment the Constructors’ title already seems to be in the hands of McLaren and the drivers’ title in those of Verstappen. But in such a particular year, obviously anything can happen. Before leaving the Singapore Grand Prix, however, we wanted to add two notes on two drivers in particular. The first is Frank Colapintowho, despite being out of the points at Marina Bay, is really doing exceptionally well, causing problems for a fast and experienced driver like Albon. We’ll see how the season continues, but if he maintains this level it’s difficult to think that he won’t be able to stay in Formula 1 next year. The second is Daniel Ricciardo, who, it seems, has reached the end of his career in the top motorsport series. Objectively, it doesn’t seem particularly unfair, the Australian has had his chances but lately the speed has been gone and Formula 1 certainly doesn’t pay attention to sentimentality. Probably almost everyone will say that the circus will miss him for his character, but let us say that what we have been missing for a long time are his braking, even if, perhaps, in Australia there is a curious tradition in this regard, given that Piastri, a rising Australian star, also seems phenomenal in managing braking at the limit.