Baku always ends at the last meter, after all this is one of its exciting features. The confirmation this time was already from Saturday: if there was a car that we did not expect to see on pole, it was the SF21.
The good news is not only the second consecutive pole, but the car’s ability to adapt to different layouts, as the unlocked potential from Bahrain seemed to be steadily increasing. Ferrari brought the latest updates to Imola, after which only an experimental floor and the appropriate and specific aerodynamic configurations, based on the different types of tracks.
While in Monaco the power deficit was not significant, here it was plausible to foresee a less competitive car, not only against Mercedes and Red Bull – but also McLaren and in close battle with Alpha Tauri – having to make up for a gap, on the power unit side, of almost 4 tenths.
After the FP2 data, the technicians of the Italian team decided that they could continue to use the low-load wing, similar to the one used on the SF1000, albeit on ‘desperate’ occasions at the time.
In this case that disappointing experience gave some certainties to the engineers and it definitely paid off in qualifying and in a certain sense also on the Soft tyres. Less on the harder compound, so a higher load would have been needed to be able to bring them in the right temperature window faster.
The key for better or for worse is always in the tires, that is to be able to find the necessary temperature by compressing them to the ground in the right way, neither too much nor too little. This is what Verstappen and Perez’s RBR16B does best.
In part, especially in qualifying, also at SF21. Sunday’s first stint was generally rather conservative in duration, too cautious for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz while very rewarding for Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari in Baku “was not perfect”, Mattia Binotto’s words, starting from a not so good strategy and from an error, that of Carlos, which affected the final result of the Spaniard.
On balance, with temperatures more than 15 degrees lower than in qualifying, a longer stint had to be attempted. The C3 (Hard) generally presented some more problems to get into the right window, but on the SF21 with the unloaded wing they went even worse. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz needed too many laps to turn them on properly, a situation which was repeated in the rhythm after the restart behind the Safety Car for Stroll’s accident.
Ferrari expected this problem but in that case only a few more degrees on track could have shortened the activation phase.
Speaking of tires, Verstappen like Stroll was the victim of an unidentified failure on the long straight with a dynamics that will have to be subjected to very careful analysis by Pirelli technicians. Both sets had exceeded 30 laps.
The damaged tires have already been sent to Milan for thorough checks.
Clearly they are two close episodes with some similarities that must be verified 100% to leave no doubts, remembering that the stress levels compared to the team simulations had forced the single supplier to increase the pressures of 1 psi on the rear train after the free practice sessions on Friday.
However there are some aspects to report: the performance of the 2021 cars is quite similar to 2019 but, unlike then, with the aerodynamic cut the behavior when exiting the corners is most penalized. Having less margin in other areas, it seems plausible that this year everyone will be forced to push the traction in search of the best lap time.
The other indication is that a softer grade of compounds have been brought to this event than two years ago. The right choice in theory because the load values are certainly no higher than in 2020 as also demonstrated by the race pace compared to the 2019 reference;
On the other hand, it must be said that the left rear tire is not the most stressed tire on the Baku track and the Verstappen accident happened in the same area as Stroll, there may be debris not fully collected by the stewards under the SC regime. Furthermore, Pirelli also reports other cuts on Lewis Hamilton’s tire which would strengthen the hypothesis of external factors and randomness.
Checo Perez won in Baku and showed why Horner wanted him at all costs. In the first phase he recovered very quickly and at a pace extremely close to Max. The Mexican inherited the position after the retirement of his teammate, then Hamilton’s error due to the activation of settings indicated for the heating of tires / brakes (the braking is moved all ‘forward’) saved him from a start which was anything but good.
Bottas’ problems in the W12 have left Mercedes with no points and threaten to unbalance the championship again in favor of the Milton Keynes team which now boasts more than one win ahead in the constructors’ standings.
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