After Friday’s practice sessions, two elements emerged that realistically would characterize the Catalan Saturday in Barcelona. On one hand, Max Verstappen’s supremacy, even on single-lap pace, and on the other hand, an environment of absolute uncertainty behind him, with Ferrari and Aston Martin ready to fight for third place and, in the best-case scenario, a surprising front-row start.
These predictions were confirmed by an unpredictable and difficult-to-read qualifying session, where the only aspect never in question was the pole position by the Red Bull driver. Behind the world champion, a session unfolded with its fair share of surprises, starting with Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc’s eliminations in Q2 and Q1, respectively. The Mexican driver suffered greatly from difficulties in getting the tires up to temperature, as well as an error in the final minutes of the second segment. Meanwhile, the Scuderia is still investigating the reasons that slowed down the Monegasque driver.
What is certain is that Max Verstappen is capable of fully exploiting the potential of the gem he has in his hands, to the extent that he could afford to abort his final lap, which would have further emphasized the current technical gap between the RB19 and the rest of the field. At the end of the qualifying session in Barcelona, the Dutch driver did not fail to praise the work of the Austrian team behind the scenes, affirming that the car was on point yesterday, confirming the perfection that finds its highest expression with the reigning world champion behind the wheel.
Alongside him on the front row will be Carlos Sainz, skilled at capitalizing on the opportunities that came his way, making the most of a day where nothing more could have been achieved. This is an aspect that both the Scuderia and the Spanish driver have struggled with repeatedly at the start of this Formula 1 world championship, finding it difficult to capitalize on the good performances shown on track. Certainly, with the main rivals out of contention, the mission has been significantly simplified, but Carlos Sainz has not disappointed, although he has also not hidden the fact that he would have preferred to move up one position to start from the cleaner side of the grid.
Setting aside secondary considerations, the Spanish qualifying session represented a good test to begin to assess the real value of the updates brought to Barcelona by the Maranello team. The enthusiasm for the second-place finish clashes with a dose of realism summarized by the phrase “one swallow doesn’t make a summer,” with some details deserving further analysis.
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The first noteworthy aspect is that, contrary to other races, the Scuderia did not suffer from derating on the Catalan track, at least not significantly. Although there remains a small gap compared to Red Bull, on this occasion, the main differences are more noticeable in terms of progression rather than top speed, with values that are almost in line with those of the RB19.
Photographer: Gianluca D’Alessandro for Motorsport Italy
The entry into turn one and the subsequent change of direction are one of those areas where Red Bull has performed well since the first practice sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya. This scenario was repeated on Saturday afternoon, highlighting the stability qualities of the Milton Keynes car. A similar but different situation can be observed at turn three, where interpretations differ: while it is true that telemetry comparisons indicate a higher speed for the Ferrari driver, this is partly due to Carlos Sainz allowing the car to drift and going beyond the white line, whereas Max Verstappen stayed more on the inside, covering a shorter distance.
Moving to the second sector, specifically turn five, which had been a strong point for both Ferrari drivers on Friday, there is a certain parity between the top two finishers, a sign that Red Bull effectively smoothed out those small details where there was still room for improvement on Friday.
From turn seven onwards, the most interesting part of the analysis begins, which doesn’t so much highlight a wide and predictable gap for Red Bull but rather how the SF-23 struggled in high-speed sections compared to McLaren and Alpine, respectively occupying third and fourth place with Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly. According to Carlos Sainz himself in the post-qualifying press conference, the goal of the new package would be to make the car more predictable and improve its behavior in medium-low-speed corners, while there is still work to be done in the faster sections.
“The new package was supposed to improve especially the medium-low speed, and in that area, we have definitely taken a step in the right direction. And as I said before the weekend, a step in a different direction is not so much a big upgrade or a big change in our performance, but the opening of a different working window for the car. That was the main goal of the update, not suddenly going half a second faster.
“We also want to make the car more predictable, more drivable, easier to put together in a lap, and we hope it goes in that direction, but unfortunately, we arrived at a track that doesn’t suit our package. Our high-speed performance hasn’t been good since the beginning of the season. Since Australia, we’ve struggled with the balance, with bouncing, and with many other things that happen to us at high speed. So yes, we want to focus on this aspect and see if we can improve it because as you’ve seen, the low speeds are not bad for us,” added the Spaniard.
It’s no coincidence that Carlos Sainz mentioned Australia, the race where Ferrari started to change direction in terms of setup, conducting various experiments. Since then, the car has seemed to have a generally softer setup, performing at its best in medium-low-speed corners, which are limited in number in Spain. On the contrary, as seen especially in Miami, performance in faster sections still requires significant work.
Photographer: Gianluca D’Alessandro for Motorsport Italy
Indeed, even comparing the values of Alpine and McLaren, in high-speed sections like turn nine or the last right turn of the renewed layout, the comparison favors the English and French teams over the Maranello team. Taking the famous turn nine, long considered a formidable test to evaluate car performance at high speeds, Carlos Sainz was the only driver in the top five to lift off the accelerator, while all the others never lifted: at that moment, the Spanish driver had a gap of about 7 km/h from the main rivals.
Undoubtedly, the MCL60 has opted for a loaded setup that has helped compensate for the chronic lack of aerodynamic load with which the Woking car was designed. At the same time, it is clear that some design limitations of the SF-23 stand out on a track that has fast corners as one of its characteristic elements.
The goal now is to understand if the new updates will help find a more stable and consistent platform in the race, one of the major weaknesses of the Maranello car. The race at Montmelò will be the first test for a package whose maximum potential is still to be discovered.
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