Red Bull and Ferrari have two almost equal race cars. Details determine victory and defeat. What remains the same is the fact Red Bull wins its time on the straights and Ferrari on the corners. Especially in the slow corners.
“The Ferrari has the best driveability out of slow corners. From the engine and the car!” – Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey admitted, as reported by German automobile magazine ‘Auto Motor und Sport’. But Ferrari were not able to exploit exactly this strength in the final stages of the sprint race today at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola. It was precisely this strength that the Ferrari was suddenly no longer able to exploit in the final phase of the Mini-Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc suffered exactly from the problems that prevented Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez from fighting in Melbourne. From lap 14 the Ferrari began to understeer, due to graining on the front right. From then on, the lead of the world championship leader over Max Verstappen began to be reduced. From 1.7 seconds within striking distance with two laps to go.
With the DRS advantage of 9 km/h, the world champion flew past the Ferrari F1-75 car before the braking point for the Tamburello corner. After that point, Charles Leclerc did not have any chance to react. The world championship leader didn’t have the grip on the front to counterattack. Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto admitted: “We expected graining, but not so early. The balance of our car wasn’t perfect today. If you only practice in the rain to prepare for a dry race, you can sometimes be wrong.” Charles Leclerc had a different suspicion: “Maybe I pushed too hard at the beginning of the sprint race”.
According to Adrian Newey, the Melbourne defeat was a warning shot for the engineers, but has not provided any direct insights for Imola. “It’s not comparable. It was a different car, a different track and different conditions.” The only learning curve was being more diligent in finding the perfect car balance and trying two tire compounds in FP2 on Saturday afternoon to learn more about the behavior of the soft and medium compounds.
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With the cars remaining in parc fermé until the main race, the question remains whether Charles will have the same problems on Sunday. Adrian Newey warns that grain can be expected even on the medium compound if the balance isn’t right. “There are ways to fix that with the permitted interventions,” Mattia Binotto reassured the Tifosi. For example with the aero balance, the tire pressure or the brake cooling.
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