Scuderia Ferrari did not disappear from the final free practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix. The adjustments made to the F1 car resulted in a super balanced chassis. What didn’t work was the warm-up of the tires. An incorrect warm-up cycle that, of course, significantly decreased the grip of the SF-24 with operating temperatures far from the correct values. It’s hard to determine if the tweaks to the setup of the car somehow contributed to the scenario observed in the last practice session. Only those directly involved know. One way or another, however, there is time to recover and present themselves in the best possible way for qualifying.
This is not the first time that the Prancing Horse has suffered from such problems. Everyone will surely remember the weekend in Canada. Or, without going too far back, let’s think of the Belgian Grand Prix where, until Q2, car number 16 struggled to make the cut. Then, in the final part of the session, Charles Leclerc nailed the warm-up and, like magic, the performance increased enough to even secure pole position. It remains to be seen how this situation will be managed by the Italian team. It’s certainly not a simple context, but it doesn’t automatically condemn the Maranello team.
Singapore is an atypical track. A street circuit where it is not easy to perfectly nail all the details. Moreover, the importance of the starting grid is crucial, as those who start at the front have excellent chances of winning considering the difficulty of overtaking. Ferrari knows this, and for this reason, they must do everything to compete on equal terms with McLaren. Failing to do so would be a major disappointment, as technically the SF-24 in Singapore configuration has shown the potential to win. All that’s left is to wait for events and see what happens.
Now let’s take a detailed look at how events unfolded for the two Ferrari SF-24 cars in qualifying at the 4.94-kilometre Marina Bay Street Circuit:
Everything is ready for the start of the qualifying session. Inside the Ferrari garage, there is a certain chatter focused on the final details. First, let’s take a look at the weather conditions on the night of Singapore: 29.5°C air temperature, 32.2°C track surface temperature. Humidity at 80%, wind speed of 1.1 km/h blowing from the south. The flag is green, the Ferrari drivers are in their cars ready to hit the track. The signal comes, the engines start, and off they go for this first outing on the Malaysian asphalt. For this run, the two red cars are fitted with a set of red-marked tires.
We’re talking about the tire that caused significant difficulties for the Prancing Horse in the last part of FP3. Therefore, it will be interesting to see if the team has immediately understood how to manage this factor. In the outlap, the rear brakes are used a lot to warm up the back end. The warm-up must be carried out properly. Charles Leclerc speaks on the radio and addresses this aspect, stating that the tires were too cold in FP3. Bozzi suggests braking hard during the preparation lap. Then they switch to push mode, let’s see what happens.
Charles Leclerc completes a very clean lap before moving on to a double cool down lap. Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, makes a mistake at turn 1 and prefers to lift off to retry the corner afterward. The Spaniard also puts together a good lap. Both Ferrari drivers lose quite a bit of time in S1. It seems that turn 7 is a point where the red cars struggle the most. During the second attempt, Charles makes a mistake in the second sector, which obviously slows him down. He is also not perfect in the third sector. Nevertheless, he improves his time. It’s a shame about the mistakes because the performance was strong.
Charles Leclerc decides and asks to manage the stability of the car at turn 13, adjusting the brake balance. A move agreed upon by the team. As for the Spaniard, he registers a not excellent lap that nevertheless mirrors the previous one. For now, at least, it seems that the tire problem has not presented itself. If so, it would be a great relief for the Maranello team. The two SF-24s return to the garage, waiting to see if the time checks are sufficient to make the cut. Apparently not, as both red cars return to the track.
Again, new red-marked Pirelli tires. There is some traffic in the pit lane, but after a few seconds, the Ferrari drivers can return to the Marina Bay track surface. They proceed with the same warm-up used previously, more aggressive than that observed in practice. A single attempt where the “two Carlos” pass the cut. However, while Charles can abort, the Spaniard is forced to finish the lap where he makes a mistake at turn 13 that costs him at least three-tenths. Good signs so far, but the actual pace of the SF-24 in qualifying is still unclear.
A brief pause and back to pushing. Apparently, with the current track conditions, overheating seems to be under control. To do this, they must manage a certain oversteering tendency that the red car has shown so far in qualifying. Q2 will undoubtedly provide more concrete feedback in this regard. During the outlap, they proceed more slowly than before. It seems that the higher asphalt temperature may help to hit the correct tire usage window. Push mode in the last corner and off for the first attempt.
For this first run, the team chose to mount used Soft compound tires on both cars. Charles Leclerc, with the scrubbed tires, managed to place himself between the two McLarens. A really good pace for the Monegasque who, despite making a few mistakes, still managed to extract good performance from the SF-24. The Madrilenian struggled more, showing less confidence with his car compared to his teammate. They returned to the garage where an adjustment was made to the front wing of car number 55: “point 1 up.” No changes were made for Charles. Inside the garage, the Ferrari team carefully studied the telemetry. A very useful move to understand the points on the track where they could increase performance for the next run. The mechanics fitted a new set of red-marked Pirelli tires on both cars, which left the pit lane a few minutes later. The usual routine for warming up the tires didn’t seem to cause too many problems for the historic Italian team at this stage of qualifying. Carlos Sainz needed to improve because it was noted that he hadn’t been able to fully exploit the potential of his car so far.
Both drivers started their laps after engaging push mode, in a performance scenario that shouldn’t face particular obstacles from traffic. Charles put together a very good lap, with just one mistake in T3, losing a tenth in that instance. He placed himself behind Verstappen, taking third position just a tenth behind leader Norris. Sainz fared worse, losing almost half a second. It seems that qualifying will be very tight until the end, with several teams fighting for the top spots until the last moment.
The time to get serious has arrived. It remains to be seen who still has something in reserve, ready to unleash maximum performance. The odds favor Lando Norris, who has been the quickest since FP3. The Brit is making the most of his MCL38, a complete and truly competitive car on this track. After yet another brief stop in the garage, the engines of the red cars roar back to life. It’s time to give everything they have. The two Ferraris leave the pit box. They are still on Soft tires, this time with a new set.
Concentration is at its peak, needless to say. The track surface temperature has risen by two degrees compared to the beginning of qualifying. The Ferrari team is engaged in the outlap, which is quite quick this time. Charles Leclerc encounters traffic and prefers to slow down a bit before accelerating again in S3. Just as the Monegasque had cleared turn 3, he had to slow down because his teammate lost control of the rear end at turn 18. The Spaniard crashed into the barriers, damaging the rear of his SF-24. Quite a mess.
On the radio, he is informed that his tires were still too cold. It’s a real shame because the Spaniard will have to start from tenth position. It remains to be seen the extent of the damage and whether it will be necessary to change the transmission of SF-24 number 55. It takes some time to remove car number 55 from the track and allow the stewards to clean up the debris and fix the barriers. We’re talking about about 15 minutes of red flag. Once everything is cleared, the only Ferrari returns to the track, now on new Soft tires.
With only 3 minutes remaining, there is just enough time to set a time. Everything is on the line for this “one shot,” as the English say. The Monegasque’s outlap follows the same pattern as the previous ones. Leclerc makes space to try to cross the line with the tires as warm as possible. A certain nervousness is noticeable on the radio, as the tension is really high. Charles sets off for his lap but overcooks it, carrying too much speed into turn 1. This means his time is canceled, and he has to settle for ninth place. A tough blow for the Ferrari team, which completely squandered qualifying.
On the return lap, the Ferrari driver is very angry. He opens up on the radio and vents as best he can. Charles Leclerc talks about an adjustment suggested by the pit wall before his last attempt that complicated things. It apparently isn’t a tire-related factor. For this reason, he seeks clarification, as he believes the front end of his SF-24 did not work as it should have. Bryan Bozzi tries to calm him down and, disheartened, admits he doesn’t have an answer at that moment. This is the account of a session that clearly couldn’t have gone worse.
— see video above —
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