At the Marina Bay street circuit in Singapore, Scuderia Ferrari secured their first victory of the 2023 Formula 1 season, ending Red Bull’s dominant streak of 14 races. Beyond the challenges faced by the Milton Keynes-based team, the Italian side orchestrated a weekend where they successfully pieced together all the elements of the puzzle, crafting an effective race strategy executed skillfully by the drivers. Let’s analyze the three key phases of the race that allowed Carlos Sainz to take the SF-23 to the top step of the podium.
For more than half the season, the question lingered: could anyone break Red Bull’s dominance before Abu Dhabi? In Singapore, during an unusual weekend, Ferrari provided the answer, interrupting Milton Keynes’ reign and capitalizing on a significant opportunity to return to the top step of the podium after over 400 days.
While the difficult weekend for the Anglo-Austrian team undoubtedly facilitated the task for their rivals, the Scuderia demonstrated its adeptness in assembling all the pieces of the puzzle: a well-suited setup on a favorable track, a clean lap in qualifying, race strategy, and nerves of steel. Without any of these elements, the result could have been entirely different, leaving a bitter taste of having missed a crucial chance.
After securing pole position on Saturday, a session in which Ferrari had often performed well throughout the season, the team had a clear objective: do everything possible to win and break Red Bull’s 14-race winning streak. Starting Charles Leclerc on the softest compound tire was an immediate signal in that direction. For Ferrari, it was crucial to try and overtake George Russell right from the start, putting their two cars at the front to control the pace and push the race towards a single pit stop. Among the possible options available to Mercedes was a strategy involving a double pit stop, as they had a fresh set of medium tires saved from the weekend.
Exploiting the advantage of the soft tires and the slow start by the British rival, the Monegasque quickly moved into second place, following Carlos Sainz. From that point on, the Scuderia’s drivers executed the pre-race strategy, maintaining an extremely slow pace to conserve their tires and postpone the pit stop for as long as possible. This tactic also helped keep the field compact, reducing the chances of Mercedes forcing the issue and attempting an undercut to bring the race to a two-stop strategy, considering that George Russell would later find himself in traffic.
From this perspective, it was also crucial to gradually increase the gap between Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, initially three seconds, then five, precisely as the window for a two-stop strategy approached. This allowed Ferrari to cover different scenarios, primarily aimed at protecting Carlos Sainz’s first place in the event of a pit stop problem or an early Safety Car intervention. In any case, there was a margin to rejoin ahead of Max Verstappen, who would realistically have stayed out on the hard compound tires. Furthermore, considering a scenario involving an early Safety Car entry, the gap between the two drivers could potentially provide an opportunity for a double stack pit stop.
The Decision to Allow Norris to Catch Up After the Safety Car
Clearly, despite the Ferrari engineers being prepared for such a situation with multiple pre-race plans, the entry of the Safety Car after twenty laps forced all drivers on the medium tires to return to the pits, advancing the ideal pit stop moment by a few laps. On the contrary, those who had started on the hard compound tires, like Red Bull (and partially Alfa Romeo, which had diversified its strategy), stayed out on track, slowing down due to the harder, worn tires, which were more challenging to bring up to temperature.
George Russell quickly overtook Max Verstappen and started to chase Carlos Sainz, fully aware that the only way to win the race, as suggested by the team, was to apply pressure to the Spaniard. He aimed to either force an error or make Carlos Sainz consume his tires faster to defend. The various duels, as well as the fact that the leading duo took a few extra laps to pass both RB19s, created a gap of nearly three seconds between the top two and Lando Norris.
Following the team’s instructions before the restart, which advised him to keep the group behind him as compact as possible, Sainz started doing what had been suggested. This allowed Norris to close the gap to the leading duo. Observing the lap times, it’s noticeable how the Ferrari driver went from a 39.8 during the twenty-seventh lap to a 41.2 on the next lap, without any mistakes, before returning to the low 40s. This approach served two purposes: firstly, it ensured Russell was no longer alone, limiting his room for maneuver because, at that point, he had to keep an eye on Norris, who had caught up behind him. Secondly, it allowed for a more relaxed tire management in a crucial phase of their life, ensuring fresher tires for the final phase of the race.
This decision proved crucial for the race because Russell was not trying to close the gap that had opened up, as there was no real need to push hard. Firstly, the gap to the leading duo was not insurmountable, given the relatively slow pace set during the race. Secondly, Norris still had a slight advantage over Lewis Hamilton, who took an extra lap to pass Max Verstappen. With almost forty laps left until the checkered flag, Norris was in a waiting game. Without Carlos Sainz’s enforced narrowing of the gap, Russell could have continued to apply pressure to Charles Leclerc, possibly bringing the race back to a two-stop strategy, the primary concern for Ferrari’s strategists.
The DRS Given to Lando Norris in the Final Stages
The entry of the Virtual Safety Car due to Esteban Ocon’s technical issue changed the scenarios again, prompting Mercedes to consider their best alternative for attempting to win the Grand Prix: a pit stop to fit a second set of medium tires, enabling them to attack in the closing stages. This was a sensible choice because it had become clear that making a decisive overtake would require either a sudden drop in tire performance, as seen with Haas, or having a significant time delta.
Utilizing the reduced time for the pit stop under VSC, when Russell returned to the track, he found himself approximately twenty-two seconds behind Sainz, with the clear objective of using the remaining seventeen laps to overturn the race. On multiple occasions, the British driver asked for a “target lap time,” a reference time per lap calculated by the Mercedes engineers that would allow him to catch up with the leading duo without excessively stressing the tires, ensuring they would be in good condition when attempting the decisive pass.
At the start of the stint, the British driver adhered to the 36.6-and-a-half indicated by the team, starting his comeback. Meanwhile, behind him, Lewis Hamilton, who was trailing his teammate by five seconds, was free to push harder and catch up when the Mercedes duo closed in on Charles Leclerc.
During the Virtual Safety Car period, Ferrari had indeed considered bringing Charles Leclerc in to change tires, suggesting a strategy opposite to Hamilton’s. However, with Mercedes opting for the double pit stop, it was decided to stay out on track, hoping that Charles Leclerc could somehow slow down their progress.
George Russell rejoined the group with less than five laps to go, and at that moment, Carlos Sainz slightly eased off to provide Norris with DRS, giving the McLaren driver an extra tool to defend against any overtaking attempts. This tactic was wisely repeated after Russell’s failed attack on Norris during the fifty-ninth lap, when, due to their duel, the McLaren driver had accumulated over a second’s gap from the leaders. At the start of the sixtieth lap, the Ferrari driver noticeably slowed down in the first chicane compared to previous laps, allowing Norris to pass the detection point with a useful gap to reactivate DRS.
Undoubtedly, this is not a new strategy, as many drivers over the years have utilized this approach to their advantage and for defensive purposes. What stands out in this case is the clarity shown by the Spaniard in a very delicate phase of the race, without making mistakes.
Leave a Reply