Ferrari: intermediate tires don't work amid SF-24 lack of pace

In the first stint of the 2024 Formula 1 British Grand Prix at the 5.891-kilometre Silverstone Circuit, the top drivers, including those from Ferrari, chose to push to the maximum and squeeze everything out of the Pirelli tires before the rain arrived. The drivers, as noted from the telemetry data related to the degradation chart, were improving their lap times lap after lap, in line with the lightening of their car.

Mercedes was the fastest car in the first part of the Silverstone race, but paid for the lower load compared to McLaren when it started to rain. As a result of the difficulties encountered by the winning team in this part of the British Grand Prix, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri climbed back after an imperfect start. Overall, the British driver of McLaren maintained a pace 0.2 seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc confirmed the difficulties in race pace, running slower than the leading cars at the start of the race. Only with the changing weather conditions did the Spaniard ignite the performance of his SF-24 single-seater, making up ground. The Ferrari driver ended the stint with a pace similar to the leading drivers. Charles Leclerc, after an excellent start, remained behind Lance Stroll for 15 laps, which slowed him down.

At the same time, the laps behind the Canadian’s Aston Martin raised the temperature of Charles Leclerc’s tires. After overtaking the Aston Martin car, the Monaco Grand Prix winner demonstrated a lack of pace compared to his Maranello teammate on an open track. The Monegasque then tried to pit and mount the intermediate tires, but the wrong call compromised his race at the Silverstone circuit.

F1, Ferrari: the wet track increases degradation, difficult management of the middle part

With wet tires, McLaren and Mercedes showed a similar pace, as Lando Norris was overall the best. The Woking team drivers were favored in managing the car thanks to the higher load on a wet track. Besides, at that moment, they were the ones making the tires work best, keeping them in the correct range.

As noted from the telemetry data, in the final part of the stint, the times improved for all drivers. Additionally, it is observed that Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton were almost always the fastest on the track. The two Brits encountered difficulties in the middle part of the stint, where they ran at a pace similar to Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

Red Bull and Ferrari are 0.5 seconds and 1 second slower, respectively, compared to Lando Norris at this stage. The unclear situation on the track led to greater wear for Max Verstappen, who experienced some difficulties on the wet track. The Dutchman’s times, as noted from the wear telemetry data, showed the least improvement. With no heavy rain, the wet tires mounted on car number 1 degraded faster compared to rival cars. The cause is related to higher speed in corners and the resulting greater stress on the Pirelli tires.

Carlos Sainz was skillful in managing the tires in the early part of the second stint. Additionally, he suffered less from the increase in times in the middle part. However, this choice in tire management put him in difficulty before making the second stop, as the wear for the Ferrari number 55 is higher compared to Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes in the final laps.

The last pit stop of the British Grand Prix shuffled the positions thanks to more or less good timing from the pit wall. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen anticipated the pit stop, gaining about 3 seconds in the first lap with the soft tires. The times of the three leading drivers are overall similar, with the British driver slower than the Dutchman, but skillful in limiting the occurrence of graining on the soft tires used in the qualifying session on Saturday.

As noted from the wear data, the average pace maintained by the seven-time Formula 1 world champion is higher. Moreover, the tendency of the dashed blue line to descend is more pronounced compared to the dark green one. Sunday’s winner faced difficulties particularly in the last 5 laps, where the deterioration of the soft tire led him to increase his lap times. Despite the 0.5 seconds lost on average to Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton managed the 6-second lead after the last stop excellently.

McLaren made yet another strategy error, which prevented Lando Norris from winning. With the medium tires, Oscar Piastri was 0.7 seconds faster than his teammate. Lando Norris’ time is obviously skewed by the degradation of his used soft tires. However, doing a quick calculation, if the Englishman had mounted new yellow-banded Pirellis, he could have engaged in a fight with Lewis Hamilton. Running at the same times as his McLaren teammate, the projection puts Lando Norris ahead by about 1.5 seconds compared to Lewis Hamilton at the end of the race.

The final section of the British Grand Prix was notable for Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, which on hard tires managed to improve times as the car lightened. Like Lando Norris, the Spaniard delayed his stop by one lap, losing position to Oscar Piastri. However, Carlos Sainz was able to mount soft tires in the last two laps of the race to set the fastest lap of the Silverstone race.