Charles Leclerc passes tire warm-up strategy test in Maranello simulator amid preparations for China. Charles Leclerc has spent three days in Maranello studying the tire warm-up strategy.

Let’s look back on the latest round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit, specifically at Charles Leclerc’s first stint in his Ferrari SF-24 car on medium tires, which was excellent. The Pirelli tires lasted without any issues for 25 laps. The Monegasque driver set his best time, namely a 1.37.480, on lap 20 of the Japanese Grand Prix and was the only driver on the grid who improved his times towards the end of the run. After completing 11 laps on the Pirelli yellow stripe tires, and having just cleared Oscar Piastri (who Charles Leclerc could not easily overtake due to not having exceptional top speed because of a significant amount of load installed on the car), the Ferrari man started matching Max Verstappen’s lap times (before the Dutchman pitted). The world champion’s lap times, unlike Charles Leclerc’s, tended to become slower.

As we emphasized in our analysis of the Japanese weekend, Ferrari’s imperfect qualifying had a significant impact on the final race result at the Suzuka circuit. Starting from the eighth spot on the grid greatly affected Charles Leclerc’s race: in the first 11 laps, stuck behind Oscar Piastri’s McLaren MCL38, the driver from Monaco lost about 1.5 seconds per lap compared to Max Verstappen, averaging about six to seven tenths slower per lap than his Spanish teammate, who was also hindered by the lower performance of Lando Norris’s McLaren MCL38.

After stopping around mid-race to allow mechanics to replace his compounds with a brand-new set of hard tires, the Ferrari driver completed his personal masterpiece: aboard car number 16, Charles Leclerc put together 29 laps in this second and final stint, experiencing a negative degradation of -0.036 seconds per lap. Essentially, on every lap, the Ferrari driver was consistently able to improve his lap times. He progressed from a time attack of 1.36.090 to the last lap of the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, stopping the clock at 1.35.044.

We can therefore assert, without error, that Charles Leclerc’s tire management was truly masterful. Using telemetric graphs, we can confirm through the data what has just been stated. Let us observe the following image that compares lap 29 of the red car (one of the first laps on white tires) with lap 51 (one of the last). First and foremost, it is evident that the top speeds at the end of all the straights and generally at mid-corner are higher towards the end of the race, where Charles Leclerc is able to keep his foot on the accelerator later, modulates the throttle less, and the engine RPMs are slightly higher, about 300 RPM more, in the last phase of the race.

Ferrari, Leclerc: Tire Management Confirmed by Telemetry

The significant difference is particularly noticeable in the first sector: in the early laps on white tires, at turn 1 Charles Leclerc performs lift and coast to minimize tire wear, and in the subsequent “snake” section consisting of 6 high-speed corner in quick succession, he modulates the throttle more, thus overheating the tires less. The brake management is also slightly different, as the braking input occurs slightly earlier, while the release from the brake pedal is more or less always at the same point (this can be particularly noted in turns 13 and 14).

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In addition to Charles Leclerc, let’s also focus on his Maranello teammate’s race at the Suzuka circuit. The Spanish driver undoubtedly had an easier time, as on Saturday he was able to maximize the performance in the qualifying session by starting from the fourth position on the grid. Carlos Sainz’s race is also noteworthy, as in the third and final stint, driving in clean air (apart from “overtaking” his Ferrari teammate), he maintained an average pace and tire degradation very similar to that of the very solid Red Bull RB20 of Max Verstappen.

Undoubtedly, the Milton Keynes team demonstrated less tire management in the last stint compared to the previous two runs, during which they preserved the tires by performing a slight lift through the 130R corner (which with today’s cars is taken at full throttle). Summing up this brief analysis, we can draw two important conclusions. The first one concerns the excellence of the pace shown by the Italian cars which, had they maximized the qualifying result, would likely have been able to put much more pressure on the two blue racing cars, especially on Sergio Perez who was once again about 3 to 4 tenths per lap slower than his Red Bull teammate.

Another important factor concerns the inherent ability of the SF-24 single-seater to keep the Pirelli compounds within the correct operating window with a high amount of fuel onboard. This is undoubtedly a “vital” aspect in the economy of a Formula 1 championship that allows the Maranello cars to perform at their best on Sundays. However, as we have said before, the qualifying session plays a very important role, an aspect on which Ferrari, especially with Charles Leclerc, is working diligently to improve.

As anticipated in a previous article, the Monegasque driver has spent three days in Maranello studying the hysteresis cycle regarding tire activation. According to the information gathered, Ferrari meticulously studied various hypothetical scenarios, with the clear goal of arriving at the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit next week with the most suitable warm-up strategy prepared in the best way possible in order to fully capitalize on the qualities of the car in terms of race pace with a better qualifying result. Charles Leclerc feels ready and, most importantly, believes he has understood how to improve the activation of the compounds, which on the SF-24 has not always seemed straightforward in this start of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

Returning to China after a 5-year absence will not be easy for anyone, especially considering that the new generation of wing cars have never raced at the Shanghai International Circuit which means that the data available for teams to prepare for the Chinese Grand Prix is rather limited. For this reason, the extra work done in hypothetical scenarios by the Monegasque driver will be even more valuable for the Maranello technicians. A technical knowledge accumulated by the Ferrari driver in order to maximize the performance of the compounds in qualifying and to overcome these difficulties that Charles Leclerc has encountered in the early stages of the 2024 Formula 1 competitive campaign. This measure is useful to align with his Ferrari teammate, who at the moment seems more efficient in using the Pirelli compounds with less fuel on board.

Source: FUnoanalisitecnica