A race decided in qualifying. The difficulty of overtaking at Imola prevailed in this edition, preventing Ferrari from possibly extracting a bit more from the SF-24, in its “evolved” version after the updates introduced. There was a phase where Charles Leclerc showed he had a better pace than Lando Norris’s McLaren, but after the mistake at Variante Gresini, the Ferrari driver had to give up the attack, with the Englishman instead launching towards Verstappen.
Fluctuating performances, but the same for everyone
There was a fluctuation in performance, but not just for Ferrari: Red Bull had the same behavior, visibly dropping off at the end, while McLaren came back to life in the last quarter of the race, nearly achieving a feat.
“Being very competitive in some phases of the race and less in others? I think it was the same for everyone: when you push, the tires overheat a bit more, then you suffer for a couple of laps and go backwards,” said team principal Frédéric Vasseur in a press conference. “In any case, I think it was impossible to overtake, at least for the first four or five. The only thing you can do in these conditions is put pressure on those ahead.”
Lead group increasingly compact
Another aspect not to be underestimated is the seven-second gap Charles Leclerc had from Max Verstappen (and Lando Norris), which shows how the lead group is getting closer together.
“This is good news for me, it’s good news for F1, it’s good news for the championship,” Fred Vasseur continued. “There are three teams within seven seconds after 63 laps, it’s less than a tenth per lap. The situation remained almost unchanged since the beginning of the weekend, and next week we start again from zero in Monaco, with a different track and different corners, and so on.”
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“Overall, I have mixed feelings because I think we made a step forward, but McLaren probably did the same. We compensated, I believe, partly for the gap with Red Bull, and we are not far off. Now I’m a bit frustrated because I think if we had taken the front row in qualifying, we would have had a one-two finish in the race, and if there’s something still missing, it’s in qualifying and not the race. We need to minimize this, but it’s also true that on Imola’s Saturday, there were other reasons that kept us away from pole, like the mega slipstream Max got from the finish line to turn 1. We need to change our approach to do things differently.”
“When there are three teams within a tenth, every single detail can make a difference, as can the characteristics of the track. Looking at the first four GPs of this year, where no one brought updates, the results were a bit inconsistent. Sometimes Red Bull was half a second ahead, sometimes not. This means it will be like this in the next races, and we need to get the most out of this situation,” the French manager emphasized.
Need to accelerate developments
Overall, have the updates allowed Ferrari to make a step forward? Imola, with its very particular characteristics, did not allow for a clear answer. And Frederic Vasseur explains why: “There will be a better understanding of the evolutionary package as soon as we encounter tracks with different types of corners, with different speeds and different minimum speeds. It should also be noted that tire management and setup are probably much more important than the update itself. This means it’s true that we need to wait for a few races before reaping the benefits.” – he pointed out.
The compactness of the lead group, however, requires meticulous attention to detail and a speeding up of the car’s development process: “I think competition will be everywhere, and we are at the point where we need to accelerate development,” Fred Vasseur emphasized. “Imagine if someone manages to bring an update one race earlier, when there are three teams so close: this allows you to easily go from fifth to first position. This means we need to speed up the process. We already discussed this after the race, and it will be crucial, but we also need to be aware that we are now chasing the last hundredth. It’s no longer about a five-tenths update, and you need to be sure that what you are bringing works.” – the Ferrari team boss added.
This could be the key factor for the next two Grands Prix. Given the results achieved by McLaren in the last two races with its updates in a championship that seems to be closer than last year’s.
Not thinking about the championship
However, Fred Vasseur prefers to give the team a different focus: not to think about the championship itself, but to concentrate race by race, continuing the growth process. Later, they will sum things up: “We have only completed seven races out of 24, so there are still 17 to go. Last year, at this point in the season, we were 100 points behind Aston Martin and finished 100 points ahead of them. A clear sign that the championship is long and it’s even truer this season.”
“I think, given that the gap is very small, it’s not often you have six or potentially eight cars that can win a race. This means that when you’re not in form, you can go from first to eighth position. If you’re eighth, your score is almost zero: the championship can change within a couple of weeks, even if there’s a retirement or an accident. Honestly, I haven’t looked at the standings, and I don’t know exactly the point gap, but I believe that if one team scores a one-two and the other zero, McLaren can step back or we can catch up with Red Bull. Now we focus on Monaco without thinking about the championship: this is what I will tell my team. Let’s focus on what we need to do race by race,” the Ferrari team principal concluded at the end of the Imola Grand Prix.
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