In the span of four hours, two Ferraris were seen. In the nineteen laps of the Sprint race, Lewis Hamilton defied all predictions, claiming his first victory in the red suit with authority. A win achieved thanks to three factors: Lewis Hamilton’s excellent race management, the perfect use of the medium tire, and the lower weight used in the sprint race.
The fifty fewer kilos of fuel (compared to a Grand Prix) carried for the Sprint race gives teams the opportunity to run a bit lower than the usual race setup without the fear of hitting the dreaded tire wear limit.
All teams operate in the same way; among the routine changes made after the Sprint race and the qualifying for the Grand Prix, there is also a slight increase in the car’s ride height in preparation for the almost hundred kilos (which vary depending on the track) needed to complete the Sunday race. “We are talking about very, very sensitive cars,” explained Charles Leclerc on Thursday without going into detail. “Just making a small change results in a big difference in how the car behaves on track. But sometimes, you have no choice but to make certain changes, like what happened in Melbourne.”
Ferrari, which was on pole on Friday and won the Sprint race, seemed to have suddenly lost its shine in the Grand Prix qualifying. “The increase in tire pressures perhaps hurt us more than others,” commented Charles Leclerc after qualifying, referring to the tires, but there are many parameters at play, including those that may have changed for the competitors’ cars between the Sprint race and qualifying.
In qualifying, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc did not complain about the car setup but rather a drop in performance, another clue suggesting that the car has good behavior but with a loss of downforce.
The question now moves to tomorrow’s race. In the 19 laps of the Sprint race, Lewis Hamilton (and Charles Leclerc) confirmed perfect management of the medium tire by the SF-25, proving to be the only car still able to have performance in the final laps. Will it be the same tomorrow, or after today’s qualifying, should we expect a drop in race pace as well?
Here, too, there are many variables. In the Sprint race, Lewis Hamilton capitalized on his pole position start, always driving in clean air, a bonus he won’t have tomorrow. Then, there’s the uncertainty of the hard tires, which will be (for everyone) a “mystery.” However, Ferrari’s performance in the Sprint race has left its mark on the competitors.
“If they perform like today, I don’t think any result is out of reach for them,” commented an engineer from a rival team. “But it will be a race with a lot fewer certainties than usual.” The message coming through is that Ferrari is still feared, even though it will start from the third row of the grid tomorrow.
