Ferrari managed to set up the last Formula 1 weekend before the traditional summer break very well and effectively. The SF-25 car demonstrated a consistently solid race pace during the free practice sessions at the Hungaroring circuit, showing promising performance trends and solid reliability ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Additionally, Charles Leclerc’s exceptional qualifying performance, helped considerably by the change in track temperature that occurred during the final stages of qualifying, opened up several important strategic scenarios and realistic opportunities for a strong race result that could have significantly influenced the championship standings. Today, we take a closer look to analyze the situation more thoroughly and comprehensively, reviewing the Monegasque driver’s performance from all possible angles and perfectly matching it with the related technical and factual data, to better understand what truly affected his race pace and overall performance.
No radio indications related to floor wear or degradation
In order to better understand what exactly happened during the race and to get a clearer picture of the situation, we carefully compare the telemetry data from Charles Leclerc’s fastest lap in the middle stint with two comparatively slower laps during the final stint of the race. First of all, it should be clearly noted that increasing tire pressure when running on lighter fuel loads is not always the optimal or correct strategy for maintaining performance or managing tire wear. With a lighter car due to fuel consumption over the race distance, the inflation pressure of the tires generally tends to be lowered because there is a significantly lower amount of weight to support, and higher pressures could negatively affect grip and balance.
It is very important to remember that wear on the plank under the car during a Formula 1 race is not constant throughout the event. The highest amount of plank wear usually occurs during the first part of the race, when the car is still carrying a full tank of fuel, making it heavier, and thus the floor is closer to the reference plane. This causes more aggressive contact with the track surface. Furthermore, there can be specific spikes in wear when the car hits bumps or curbs incorrectly or aggressively, which can further damage the floor and impact aerodynamics. As the fuel load decreases progressively throughout the race, the likelihood of significantly wearing the floor diminishes greatly, and the risk of damage due to bottoming out becomes far less probable.
By examining the telemetry related to the speed data, we are able to identify the main points and corners where Charles Leclerc was losing time compared to his own previous laps and the ideal racing lines. In sector 2 of the track, the Ferrari driver was not holding back at all in terms of driving effort and aggressiveness, pushing hard to maintain strong lap times. This sector includes several bumps and undulations that could potentially cause issues related to floor wear if hit improperly. Importantly, Charles Leclerc did not receive any radio instructions to avoid or stay off the curbs, a crucial factor that alone strongly rules out the hypothesis of excessive floor wear, as the team would likely have warned him to be more cautious if damage was suspected.
If Ferrari had suffered serious problems of this nature, the irreparable damage to the floor would have almost certainly occurred during the first part of the race, at a time when Charles Leclerc was pushing at maximum effort to build a gap over the McLaren drivers, including Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who were strong competitors in the battle for the race win. For this reason, it would make no sense at all to reduce performance in the final stint by raising the ride height of the car, since damage to the floor is irreversible and cannot be undone during the race. It is also worth noting that during the final stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the engine mappings are usually more conservative to preserve the power unit, manage fuel consumption carefully, and protect the mechanical components in anticipation of upcoming races.
What effect does the tire pressure adjustment generate on performance?
Charles Leclerc was losing time in the slow corners of the first sector, especially at several turn-in points where precision and grip are crucial, then showed a nearly constant time loss during sector 2, where the flow of the circuit demands smooth but aggressive throttle application. This observed time gap could be related to an increase in tire pressures during the stint. This observation would explain two key factors: the first concerns the discussion between Charles Leclerc and the Ferrari pit wall during the second stint, which involved an unknown parameter that the Monegasque driver questioned and wanted to understand better, indicating some concern about the handling balance and behavior of the car.
The second point is that increasing the tire pressure by approximately 1 pound per square inch can indeed result in a reduction in performance, but only by a small margin of about 1 to 2 percent. Even such a minor increase in tire pressure causes intrinsic tire slip, which increases stress on the tread and therefore raises the tire temperature. This elevated temperature then deviates from the optimal thermal window for peak performance and could partly explain the time gap accumulated in the final stint of the race, as the tires become less effective at providing grip and generate more degradation.
It should be emphasized that increasing tire pressure is unrelated to protecting the floor from damage. Instead, it is more likely that the tire pressure adjustment aimed to get the tire compound to heat up faster, which indeed happened during the stint. The quicker tire warm-up would have been a tactical move by the engineers to ensure the tires reached optimal operating temperature sooner, thus improving initial grip and stability. However, it remains unclear why the race pace fell off so dramatically. Attempting to find a single root cause may not be accurate, as it is probably the result of a combination of multiple factors, including the management of the power unit settings, fuel consumption strategies, and possibly subtle changes in track conditions, all of which also played their part in the drop in performance during the final stages.
Leclerc’s driving style and its effect on lap times and tire wear
Different speeds on the straights and in the corners led to varying usage of the throttle and different gear selections, which in turn affected tire performance and fuel consumption. In particular, when comparing lap 62 with lap 27, with the car being approximately 65 kilograms lighter due to fuel burn-off, Charles Leclerc was forced to lift off the throttle earlier than usual, resulting in lower speed at mid-corner and consequently applying throttle later on corner exit. This driving style is typically called lift-and-coast and is often used by drivers to conserve tires and fuel, but it can also lead to slightly slower lap times. On the main straight, the floor of the car was making considerable contact with the asphalt due to the car’s setup and track undulations.
However, as mentioned previously, this is a problem that teams take into account at the start of the race and not during the last third of the race, where the probability of wearing the floor is much lower. This lower probability of damage is mainly because of heavy impacts with the curbs rather than the car bottoming out on smoother sections of the track. For example, in corner 3, due to the tires being at the limits of pressure and temperature, Charles Leclerc was modulating the throttle input where he would usually apply full throttle in earlier laps, in an effort to manage grip and avoid overheating the tires.
In sector 2, the throttle trace more closely resembled the “original” throttle input from the beginning of the race, indicating a slight return to a more aggressive driving style as tire conditions changed. Regarding gear usage, Charles Leclerc used eighth gear during the initial stint, while in the second and third stints he switched to seventh gear, likely also with the aim of saving fuel and managing power delivery more smoothly. This approach is common in the latter stages of races, where conserving resources can be critical for securing a strong finish. We now look forward to the Dutch Grand Prix to learn more details about the ongoing technical developments and race strategies, where our editorial team will be present on site to provide detailed live coverage and expert analysis of Ferrari’s progress and challenges.
Leave a Reply