The track remains the same as last week, but Lewis Hamilton leads the ranking this time. Mercedes worked hard during the week, but will it be enough? The seven-time world champion doesn’t believe it and is sure Verstappen still has something in his pocket. The two Aston Martins emerge, as the two Ferrari cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz seem further back for. But while it may not seem like it, it was a positive day for the Italian side.
Let’s analyse in detail Ferrari’s Friday in Austria. Let’s start immediately by saying that we have not seen the true performance of the Italian car. Both drivers made their fast lap on the Soft just as the track was starting to be slippery due to some rain showers. The pit wall then decided to concentrate on preparing for the race and not waste time in retrying the qualifying simulation. On the flying lap, the main problem remains only one: the Power Unit. The lack of horsepower is no secret. The introduction of the C5 compound will put the Italian car to the test. The SF21 turns out to be excellent at quickly activating the compounds, but in the race this becomes a problem. It is very likely that this weekend too we will see a special setup for the race.
Let’s now pass to the analysis of the simulations with a full tank of fuel. Contrary to what one might think, many teams have focused their work on understanding the mediums thoroughly. And not the Soft, which is the compound they know less about. This is because on Sunday they will try to make a single stop. To do this they will need to start with the Medium tire.
Since there is a rather limited delta between the Soft and the Medium, the top teams almost take it for granted that they will be able to start with the yellow compound. For this reason the three top teams faced the first part of the simulation on the Medium. On this tire, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari proved to be at the level of the two title contenders. A positive sign if we think that this tire corresponds to the Soft of last weekend.
Those who have tried the Soft tire have been able to see that it will not be the tire of the race. Definitely slower on the pace. Starting with the red, the second stop will be almost mandatory. In the morning the Soft was also tested by Carlos Sainz. After about 9 laps he accused of graining on the front left. That said, the low asphalt temperatures may not have helped. The fact remains that Ferrari will have to work a lot on this front.
Few have continued the simulation with a second stint. Lewis Hamilton used another train of mediums to make comparisons. Gasly also moved to the mediums and showed a rather competitive pace, not far from the top teams. Finally Ocon and Vettel tried the Proto compound. As seen last weekend, the undercut is not very powerful on this track. The overcut turned out to be more profitable. The entry of any Safety Car (or Virtual) could play a huge role in the race strategy.
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