The Qatar Grand Prix saw the expected performance from Ferrari. In other words, there were no surprises. Max Verstappen, the “cannibal,” continues to win and set records. The Dutch driver has become the one with the most laps led during an F1 season, surpassing Vettel’s record achieved with Red Bull in 2013. The podium, like in Suzuka, was completed by the McLaren duo. The pair of Piastri and Norris currently seems to be in the best form in the entire championship.
The performances of the young drivers in papaya-colored suits are often similar and consistently high. With the same number of pit stops, Oscar and Lando had a gap of just 5 seconds from Max at the end of the race. The three-time world champion revealed in interviews the reason for the relatively small gap. The inability of Red Bull to use their tire management capabilities gave McLaren a chance to get closer.
Mercedes won the battle against Ferrari. Russell recovered from the last position to challenge for a podium with the McLaren team. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc, although he had an unremarkable race, proved to be the best in terms of tire degradation during the third stint on Hard tires. The specific format introduced for safety reasons didn’t appear to significantly affect the engineers’ strategies. On the contrary, the limited number of laps (18) for each set of tires made things easier. This aspect, however, was challenging for the drivers who had to give their all in each lap.
Qatar GP 2023: Ferrari – Reduced Fuel Saving for the SF-23 Highlights a Race at Maximum Pace
After the pleasantries, we focus on the fuel management of some teams during the Qatar GP. Unlike what was seen in Suzuka, it can be seen from the data how hard the various drivers pushed. In the following graph, the x-axis marks the laps starting from the one following the initial Safety Car period caused by the incident at the start.
In this case, Ferrari confirms itself as the team with the least need to manage fuel. Charles Leclerc tends to maximize fuel saving between the first and second stints. This operation is mainly performed at the end of the long straight, where, before braking, drivers lift their foot to proceed by inertia.
The world champion in his RB19 conserves fuel conservatively in the first section. From lap 31 (26 on the graph), Max begins to demand the maximum from his car to counter the pace of the two McLaren drivers. Norris and Piastri are the most economical drivers. The Englishman alternates between fast laps and more conservative ones, while the Australian manages fuel more similarly to Verstappen.
Qatar GP 2023 – 1st Stint: Verstappen the Best on Medium Tires
Let’s move on to the analysis of tire degradation for Pirelli tires during the race. In general, the Italian tires suffered from negative thermal degradation. This means that as the laps progressed, the lap times tended to decrease progressively as the cars became lighter.
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The laps considered in the first part of the race are those following the presence of Bernd Mayländer on the track. All drivers completed a stint using the used yellow-striped C2 tires, where the number of useful laps was closely related to the laps already run on the tires. Verstappen set the best lap times. His degradation curve is a parabola, and the Dutchman went faster as fuel decreased.
Norris, driving his MCL60, showed degradation quite similar to that of the fresh three-time Formula 1 world champion. Leclerc also gained time as the fuel level decreased, while Piastri and Alonso suffered slight degradation over the laps.
Qatar GP 2023 – 2nd Stint: Linear and Negative Degradation for All. Ferrari Struggles with Blistering
In the graph for the second section of the race, we consider the first stint of Russell and Bottas, who finished fourth and eighth, respectively. The Englishman had degradation similar to what was seen earlier for Lando Norris. While George Russell demonstrated a good pace with his W14, despite being involved in a recovery through traffic.
The best driver in the second quarter of the race, also completed with used yellow tires, is still Verstappen. The talent from Hasselt set lower lap times than his competitors. Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris recorded very similar lap time reductions, while Oscar Piastri had a bit more trouble with the C2 tires. Charles managed to achieve negative degradation, even though his tires showed some slight blistering, as evidenced by the higher time in lap 5.
Qatar GP 2023 – 3rd Stint: Ferrari with the Least Degradation on Hard Tires. Verstappen Consumes Tires More
Now let’s introduce the analysis of the third section, focusing on the latter part of Russell’s race. The Englishman completed a second stint with lap times similar to Verstappen. The performance curve for driver number 63, like the one for the second stint of the Dutchman, shows a 2.5-second jump over 16 laps.
In this part of the race, an interesting factor emerges for our analysis when looking at the first of 18 laps for most drivers. There was a clear differentiation of tire compounds by the teams. When examining the various markers, it is noticeable that McLaren was the only team still using medium tires. Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso, who switched to Hard tires, were the most effective, with the Ferrari driver showing a linear degradation 0.3 seconds better than the Spaniard.
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris had a bit more difficulty. The difficulties of the RB19 are also confirmed by the data related to fuel saving seen earlier: despite pushing his car to the limit, Max couldn’t get the tires to perform well. The high track temperatures and the short length of the stint on C1 tires didn’t allow the Dutchman to make a difference. On the contrary, the McLarens got closer.
Qatar GP 2023 – 4th Stint: McLaren Degrades Hard Tires More Than Mediums
Finally, let’s examine the last of the four “mandatory” stints required by the FIA. Max Verstappen completed fewer laps than his competitors, pushing to achieve a time of 1:24.319, the fastest lap of the race. Charles Leclerc maintained a consistent pace during his last 14 laps on the medium tires, as indicated by the nearly horizontal red line. The two McLarens, driven by the pit wall to secure their positions, showed slight degradation on the Hard tires.
This last piece of data supports an undoubtedly interesting final consideration. In the Losail circuit, the tires best suited for sustaining the long race stints were the Pirelli yellow-striped ones (C2). As seen in the F1 Sprint and the Sunday race, the C2 tires were the only ones that provided negative degradation even with a full fuel load.
Source: Leonardo Pasqual for FUnoanalisitecnica
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