Scuderia Ferrari is evaluating when and how to introduce the updates. For Barcelona no important package of updates, as well as for Mercedes, while Red Bull has already brought it to Portimao.
The challenge with Mclaren, which instead will bring some updates this weekend, for the moment is played out with rather close performances which means that every point will be very important. Mattia Binotto’s engineers want to try to extract every tenth available, feeling they still have some margin to evaluate the potential.
It is quite clear that with the top teams (Mercedes and Red Bull) out of reach except for unpredictable events during a race, every detail must be exploited to compete for third place in the Constructors’ standings. In this regard, Mattia Binotto however highlighted that “the primary objective is to demonstrate that we can improve in every area” .
Mclaren, thanks to the Mercedes power which was clear once again at Imola, maintains a strong power advantage over Ferrari in qualifying (15 HP) which can be increased slightly in some stages of the race. Which means it has a positive and interesting gap to manage.
The SF21 seemed in some respects better optimized after the new regulations, less limited than others, even if in Barcelona the SF21 will be forced to recover 0.3 sec / lap in qualifying to the MCL35M (but no longer almost 1 second) with other qualities of the package.
This weekend’s race will be a fundamental appointment for many teams to decide if the development direction is correct, even for those who, like Aston Martin, have not impressed in the 2021 Formula 1 season.
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