Charles Leclerc vs Max Verstappen, single lap telemetry analysis:
Big speed difference between the cars: 9kph in T1, they chose very different aerodynamic packages, while both cars are obviously high downforce, Red Bull has gone for less DF than Ferrari and Mercedes. Which means they will be hard to pass come race day.
A small error from Max Verstappen here in T1, struggled a bit to turn the car and had some understeer.
A small mistake from Charles at the exit of banked hairpin, just let the car lose speed a bit too much, but overall not a big factor.
In T7 we start to see the higher downforce from Ferrari really play a role, the 9kph that Red Bull was faster in the straight, Ferrari is faster in the corner, on average 8.4kph faster in the corner than Max. Right after this corner, somehow Max telemetry had a bit of a defect which affected how the rest of the lap reads (this is due to how distance is calculated in the telemetry).
This is where Charles lost pole, in T9 Charles had some oversteer on exit, compromises his ability to use the throttle early, also compromises his line into T10 which also ends up meaning he is unable to put down the throttle early. Before this point Charles had managed to create a good gap of 0.3s which just evaporates in 2 corners.
Again the different philosophy on downforce plays a role here, with Charles able to stay on throttle more and go through the last corner again almost 9kph faster, but Max Verstappen anticipating the apex goes full throttle earlier and with lower downforce manages to quickly gain speed advantage and gain that 0.1s needed to get pole.
This isn’t a big item, but it appears on both Max and Hamilton’s’s telemetries, but not on Charles, meaning that the way Ferrari runs through T5 is pretty flat out as if it’s a straight. Even if Mercedes has similar higher DF package, they can’t do that. Might be hard to pass, unless they run out of tires.
Lewis Hamilton vs Max Verstappen, single lap telemetry analysis:
Like with Ferrari, big gap in top speed, 9kph. But Mercedes still has lower downforce than Ferrari due to the approach in T5 which is actually worse than Red Bull in how it impacts speed.
T1 is pretty bad for Lewis Hamilton, given it’s a slow corner, his tires probably weren’t in the window yet and the mechanical grip wasn’t there, the braking in particular was not good.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma! Enter the online Puma Store and shop securely! And get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Lewis Hamilton is 4kph slower through the hairpin apex, and goes a little long too, ends up paying in top speed at the end of the following straight,
Charles Leclerc was able here to be about the same speed as Max Verstappen, but the Mercedes driver pays 11kph, even more than the finish line, probably due to the error in the hairpin, higher drag and lower efficiency of the car as shown by how T5 impacts Hamilton more than Verstappen despite the higher wing in the Mercedes.
Once again, top speed difference 7kph
Mechanical grip remains a struggle even at the end of the lap, HAM just can’t get fast enough on throttle at T11-12, however here he is saved by the impressive braking performance.
Little error here for Hamilton on exit of the last corner where he can’t put down the throttle nearly as fast as Max, this is very costly because of the straight afterwards, ends up losing 0.2s right there.
Leave a Reply