The first day of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend certainly showed once again a certain balance between the forces in playespecially on the chronometric front. Similar lap times in the qualifying simulation, race pace and tire degradation quite similar even in the race simulation between the top 4 cars (Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes) only confirm the trend of this phase of the world championship in which the values on the field are discovered race after race.
McLaren MVP of the day
However, if we have to choose one of the top four teams as the best of the day, we have no doubts in choosing the one in Woking. Barcelona is one of the tracks where aerodynamic qualities matter moreand the MCL38 has plenty to spare. Norris and Piastri showed an excellent combination of load and efficiency, great stability when cornering and excellent balance between the axles, with a rear stable when cornering and ready at exit for high speed re-accelerations on one side and a front which is precise but never exaggerated and with good management of the front left tyre, very stressed on this track together with the rear ones. The few set-up changes seen in the pits for both Norris and Piastri confirm a very profitable job in Woking and therefore show McLaren as the most solid team seen on the track on this first day.
Red Bull is chasing the set-up, even with Verstappen confident
However, the approach of the Red Bull team is not exceptional, albeit Verstappen proved to be quite fast on the race pace front. For the Anglo-Austrian team, the entire afternoon session was a continuous dialogue between garage and driver various modifications to the car’s set-up and wing changes to find the best balance. In the end Verstappen seemed to be more comfortable in the long run, and in interviews after the session he said he was confident for the weekend, but Perez’s difficulty betrays an RB20 that still needs a lot of work to be able to fully exploit your potential on an ideal track like Barcelona. The impression is that the set-up chosen was also with a lower load level than the competition (confirming that the car may have some difficulty finding the maximum downforce peak), but the balance brought to the track in the final phase of the session was a good starting point to work on during the night and tomorrow in the third free practice.
Ferrari good on the flying lap and better with Sainz, but Leclerc is confident
As far as the Maranello team is concerned, it is clear that the paths for the two riders were very different right from the start. In the first free practices the aerodynamic innovations brought to the track by the Maranello team were only present on Sainz’s car for a comparative test and from there Leclerc then took an obviously incorrect set-up direction which led to a lot of imbalance between the axles and some too much difficulty managing tire temperatures. Hence the decision to carry out a series of important mechanical changes during the second session which brought the Monegasque back onto a decidedly more manageable path, as seen from the brief pace simulation carried out by Leclerc in the final minutes. In general the SF-24 seemed definitely ready for the flying lapbut with still some work to do on the race pace front, where, to contain the overheating of the tires, Sainz had to keep a lot of performance under his belt without being able to show it. “The track for qualifying can meet us with evolution” Fred said in an interview Vasseurgiving the idea of how an improvement of the track that offers more grip reduces tire slip and precisely limits surface overheating, an aspect that seems already included in the equation of the red’s set-ups.
The data
Let’s now look at the session data, which always offers some interesting aspects. Starting from the telemetry of the best lap and especially from the summary data, we note how the Red Bull is the car that brought significantly less load onto the track than the competition, with a higher top speed, but also a lower load index and a higher standard deviation of speeds than its opponents. This damaged the Milton Keynes team a lot on the flying lap, and we see from the gap curve how Verstappen loses “in steps” at turns 4, 5, 8 and 10, while gaining momentum, especially on the main straight. We haven’t talked about Mercedes so far, which still remains to be verified with a track with more grip. In fact, we know that the Brackley car has a predilection for the low grip conditions given by a track not yet equipped with rubber and this may have helped Hamilton to find the best time, together with a particularly high aerodynamic load brought to the track. Lower top speed (320 km/h), higher load index value and very low standard deviation show a W15 with a very high level of downforce, an aspect that obviously pays off a lot in the various long corners of the track, but which for now requires a significant toll in the lengths, as can be seen from the gap curves that are always downhill at the end of the straights. Overall we then notice an excellent McLaren, which finds a good performance in the long run but also the lowest standard deviation of the speedsconfirming a car with a lot of grip and good aerodynamic efficiency, with Norris who covered the entire lap just a few thousandths behind Hamilton and who saw, not only on this lap but throughout the day, a good performance of the papaya cars especially from turn 5 to turn 8, where load is needed, but also a good balance between the axles. Ferrari very effective with Sainz in the first sector, remained ahead of Hamilton for the best time until turn 12, where the tires already appeared to be at the limit with the temperatures and left the Spaniard with the second time just 22 thousandths behind Hamilton. Finally coming to race pace simulations, McLaren appeared decidedly at ease with both Norris and Piastri, who also diversified their attack strategies during the stint. The Ferraris appear to suffer from thermal degradation of the tire due to overheating, an issue that will require race-oriented set-up optimization work, while Verstappen appeared fast at times but not immune to degradation himself.
In conclusion, the impressions are of a track that has proven itself complicated to read and required a lot of work by the teams to find the optimal balance, but also potential balance both in qualifying and in the race between all 4 top teamswhich could make the weekend decidedly exciting, starting tomorrow with the hunt for pole position.
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