Sun or rain, cold or hot, it doesn’t matter; at the moment, Max Verstappen is capable of making a clear difference compared to the rest of the grid. The RB19 technically has no weak points, and the competition is gradually embracing its concepts as best they can – the latest being Ferrari – yet Sergio Perez’s performance was far from the level of the Dutchman on equal terms. After several street circuits, the technical layout of Barcelona ended up severely exposing Verstappen’s current supremacy. Everyone struggled with car setups as track conditions significantly changed compared to yesterday, with temperatures 10 degrees lower.
The key to qualifying was probably hitting the tire operating window. The reigning world champion had no trouble optimizing his package and achieving the best performance.
The surprise of the day can only be Lando Norris, qualifying in P3. He made good use of what we can call an indirect quality of the MCL60 in these conditions, which is a dose of extra drag. Normally, when you need to quickly heat up the tires without overheating them, you need to control the slip, something that Lando managed perfectly.
Today, Carlos Sainz performed better than Alonso. Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz are the two local favorites. The Ferrari driver secured an excellent front row in the home Grand Prix. Nevertheless, the updated SF-23 driven by the Spaniard stopped 5 tenths behind the Dutchman, while the average gap on the fastest lap between Red Bull and Ferrari had so far remained within 2 tenths. This could indicate a first change in methodology in favor of the race setup. The aerodynamic package aims to achieve greater performance consistency, and the race should provide a first test. On the other hand, the driver from Oviedo obtained a disappointing 5th row position.
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During his off-track moment, he severely damaged the floor of his Aston Martin, with engineers estimating the damage at approximately one tenth. Fernando himself admitted in the heat of the moment that his mistake “cost him the front row,” adding that his target for tomorrow is P5 or P6.
Ferrari shows two faces, with Leclerc out in Q1 and starting from the back row.
At the time of writing, the issues that affected Charles Leclerc in qualifying are still unknown. His SF-23 has been disassembled for initial analysis, but the curfew prevents extensive physical inspections. The Maranello team has announced that the engineers are still in a meeting. It is possible that all suspicious parts will be replaced and then examined in Maranello. From the data, it appears that the Monegasque driver instantly lost 2 tenths of a second in every left turn, from T5 onwards, during traction and support on the right rear tire.
From what has been learned by the Italian website formu1a.uno, it seems plausible to take advantage of the position at the back of the grid and introduce two new power unit components such as the battery and control electronics (CE). In the overall scheme of things, it is a meager consolation to add two critical elements to the pool. However, it is necessary because tomorrow it would cost a position rather than twenty.
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