At the 4.657-kilometre Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, it was a very hot Friday, not only because of the atmospheric temperatures – as expected – but also because of the anticipation to see if the 2024 Formula 1 championship will really offer the much-desired close battle between the different top teams. Ferrari brought a substantial aerodynamic update package here, while Red Bull had a less significant package which is not focused on pure performance. McLaren is extracting the potential of the updated car from Miami, while Mercedes is engaged in a weight reduction program that can continue its recent progress. The first day of free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix provided results that are not yet definitive, but certainly interesting.
At the end of the day, both Ferrari drivers gave positive feedback, without getting too carried away. Carlos Sainz spoke of a car that performed well in terms of pace on the single lap, while there is still significant room for improvement regarding the race pace with the fuel load. Charles Leclerc did not have the opportunity to do many laps with a full fuel load, and his Qualifying simulation laps were affected by a suboptimal setup and also traffic. In the first free practice session, the Monegasque driver’s SF-24 did not use the updates in order for the Maranello technicians to gather data with the previous specification and therefore run comparative tests, but Charles Leclerc’s car also showed incorrect balance on a track that was still vert green at that moment. Charles Leclerc himself had asked via radio to move closer to his teammate’s setup with the modifications, which the engineers did, only to change it back during the second free practice session. The Monegasque driver wanted to revert to his original setup, with another significant adjustment that gave him more confidence at the end of the second practice session and which will be the basis for Ferrari’s work ahead of FP3.
The updates have been approved and will remain on both cars, thus being used for the rest of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. From Friday’s initial feedback, Ferrari performed well in the medium-fast sections and also developed good efficiency, which is exactly what is expected from this package, namely more efficient downforce. It did not perform badly even in the few slow sections, where cars – especially McLaren – showed better results. Unlike usual, Maranello’s engineers decided to work on the simulator on Friay tonight in order to perfect the setup and improve the long run results, not being overly concerned about the single lap pace. Charles Leclerc confirmed at the end of FP2 that Ferrari know where to find the lap time and that it should not be an issue. A somewhat countertrend result compared to the SF-24 seen so far, often comfortable in the long run while needing more intensive work to extract potential in the single lap. In terms of tires, the degradation is high but in line with that of the other teams, although several teams have pointed out that the degradation is higher than expected, as reported by the Italian website formu1a.uno.
Red Bull does not convince Verstappen despite the expressed potential, McLaren the most convincing
Among the rivals, there is an intense battle as once again, between Qualifying simulations and race pace, we find more than one car within just a few tenths. Judging by Friday’s results, the trio of Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren has been joined by Mercedes. The W15 single-seater was convincing on the single lap, a bit less so on race pace, showing significant downforce capabilities even if this penalized it on the various stretches of the Barcelona circuit. At least on Friday, there were no notable difficulties in balancing the car in the different types of corners, with good competitiveness in high-speed curves. In the reigning world champions’ camp, it was once again a day of mixed impressions. Sergio Perez started off on the right foot but then fell behind in the second free practice session with a rather poor race simulation. Max Verstappen did not finish in the Top 3 but had a good race simulation with the medium tire, though without direct comparison with the rivals. The Dutchman appeared annoyed with the behavior of his RB20 and explicitly requested a return to the old spec wing, at least for the rest of the day. It is also worth noting that the two Red Bull drivers ran with different rear wing specifications, opting for different setups.
Once again, McLaren impressed. On average, it’s worth pointing out that the MCL38 has been the best car since the introduction of the Miami aero package, and here at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, there was another confirmation of their impressive progress, at least on this first day of track action in Spain. On the single lap, both drivers were competitive and indeed, both MCL38 cars were in the leading positions. Even better, however, was seen in the excellent potential in the long run, with both drivers engaged in a race pace simulation that showed a good rhythm and good management. Lando Norris spent a few laps behind Carlos Sainz before being “released” and being able to lower his times, before returning to the pits. Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, had a few more problems with tire management, using a more aggressive approach with very fast initial laps followed by more pronounced degradation. By the end of the day, however, Andrea Stella’s team certainly attracted attention and confirmed, as expected, to be one of the main candidates for pole position and victory on Sunday, especially.
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