McLaren is ahead, but that’s nothing new. Ferrari’s F1 team principal makes that clear right away, reminding everyone that the Woking team has been the best of all since the start of the season. The usual 3-tenths advantage is always mentioned, which didn’t show up in the Chinese Sprint Race – the one Lewis Hamilton won – due to errors made by the British team during qualifying. Errors that Ferrari must learn to avoid like the plague, since when you’re racing, of course, there’s no room for missteps.
Things aren’t as bad as they seem for the SF-25
Today’s two sessions showed an indecisive Prancing Horse, in some ways hard to interpret. Installing a new floor is never simple. The team is already working in the simulator right now. The goal is to shed light on today’s situation, to analyze and understand the car’s behavior. Once this work is done, the group of technicians and engineers, together with the drivers, will decide on the best setup to properly balance the SF-25.
Not that there’s any need to hide behind a finger – things definitely could have gone better today. In FP1, track conditions didn’t help, with overall grip lacking. Still, describing the situation as negative seems truly excessive. We say this also because, during the two push laps from the Ferrari drivers, the tyres were anything but in the correct operating window.
As a result, the grip generated by the car’s two axles was far from optimal. In addition, there was significant thermal imbalance between the front and rear of the Italian car. For this reason, it’s better to wait until tomorrow, after FP3. Without a doubt, the team will have much more data to base its analysis on and will be able to build a much more realistic picture ahead of the season’s fourth qualifying session.
Fred Vasseur confirms issues with tyre activation
Fred Vasseur, as mentioned. Speaking to TV reporters, he talks about the drivers. Mainly Lewis, recounting the mistake in Turn 11 that forced him to lift off, when he was about a tenth behind Oscar Piastri’s benchmark. A way to highlight the level of precision Ferrari will need to show to put a lap together. As for the new floor, here’s the news: the data readings are positive.
This means the level of downforce provided by the new component was as expected, as were the stability benefits. Lap times don’t matter today. The value of this major component didn’t impact the stopwatch because the work program was different and, indeed, putting everything together wasn’t possible due to various track-related reasons: tyres, errors, and a setup that still needs fine-tuning.
The Frenchman, even though the Italian team still needs to analyze the data thoroughly, confirms that the drivers are pleased with this small step forward. Then, as mentioned, he speaks about the tyres and the difficulties that limited the car’s pace. Yes, because as said, overheating prevented the drivers from reaching the expected performance. To give an example, let’s look at Charles Leclerc.
In his push lap during FP2 on Soft tyres, watching the steering wheel we noticed just that. The run started with low temperatures on both axles, far from the front-end target value of 4 points. After just over half a lap, the front was showing +9, while the rear had even reached +15. The operating window was completely off. We know how important tyre management is.
McLaren once again showed its great ability to manage the compounds. This is an endemic trait of the MCL39, but also a credit to the drivers and engineers in preparing the lap, where the warm-up strategy was flawless. This is precisely where Ferrari must focus its efforts, without forgetting some suspension tweaks to improve performance in changes of direction.
— see video above —
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