COTA Sprint pace analysis: Max Verstappen dominant, Ferrari has to manage tire degradation | 2023 USA GP. Austin Sprint pace analysis: Ferrari has to manage pace amid tire degradation.

The short race that took place on Saturday evening has once again clarified the performance hierarchies. Red Bull on top, despite a slightly higher ride height, with Mercedes and Ferrari in pursuit. Let’s now look at the analysis of the pace seen during the Sprint Race at the US GP in Austin.

Few laps, but the real values emerge

With the planned distance of 100 km, we can begin to understand the true pecking order that we will see in today’s longer race. Naturally, at the forefront, we find Verstappen, who put a 12-second gap between him and the first pursuer in just 19 laps. His pace was consistently about half a second faster and allowed the world champion to build a gap over Hamilton. However, the seven-time world champion managed to show a fairly steady pace with linear tire wear. The introduction of the new floor has allowed this performance increase on such a complex circuit. An update that could prove crucial in the battle with Ferrari and McLaren. The latter confirms its improvement, with Lando Norris maintaining a quite interesting pace, albeit affected by the initial battle with Carlos Sainz. In fact, at the end of the 100 km, Lando Norris’ average pace was only 53 thousandths of a second slower than Charles Leclerc’s.

Ferrari had some trouble understanding tire degradation, fielding SF-23 #16 with the yellow-marked tires and #55 with the Soft tires. This choice was certainly linked to a simulation for today’s race, an attempt to gather as much data as possible. Carlos Sainz’s red tire showed a bit of wear in the middle part of the race, with lap times approaching the 1:42 mark. However, a few laps later, the tire returned to working well, with his lap times approaching those of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. The situation in the neighboring pit was more complex, with Charles Leclerc managing tire degradation fairly well during the first 13 laps. However, in the following lap, his lap times abnormally increased, almost reaching the 1:42 mark.

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Source: f1ingenerale