The first free practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix did not allow Ferrari to collect complete data. Charles Leclerc’s crash in the first free practice session, which occurred at the entry of Turn 3, forced Lewis Hamilton to take on the full workload of Friday’s setup development. The British driver showed a decent feeling with the car, but not yet on par with his Maranello teammate.
There is also an interesting aspect worth noting. The graining suffered on the front axle did not help in managing the handling of the SF-25 in sector three, on a circuit where keeping the front tyres in the right temperature window is particularly difficult. McLaren had an even more complicated start to the weekend, lacking balance until halfway through FP2 and showing a car that was very oversteery.
On the Montreal circuit, the Woking team introduced revised versions of both the front and rear wings, but so far without finding a clear performance benefit. Only after switching to the old spec in the final part of FP2 did the world champion cars improve, which in turn allowed Lando Norris to get closer to George Russell’s excellent Mercedes.
On the other hand, the McLaren MCL39 car was strong in race pace. However, Mercedes is very close, with all four drivers separated by just five hundredths. The biggest difference between the two teams came from reduced drag on the straights. Specifically, George Russell and Oscar Piastri were averaging 5 kilometers per hour more than Lewis Hamilton and 10 kilometers per hour more than Max Verstappen before Turn 13.
The Red Bull driver may have opted for a lower engine mode to preserve the power unit. Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, on average six tenths slower, also ran a less aggressive setup, apart from the first two laps, although it should be noted that the SF-25 does suffer in terms of efficiency. Furthermore, the world champion was lifting off earlier than his rivals approaching Turn 13, where he lost around a tenth.
The final sector of the Canadian circuit appears to be the most complex for the Maranello car. During the long run, Lewis Hamilton really struggled to carry speed through the middle of Turn 10, revealing difficulty in getting the car turned in towards the apex. A similar issue occurred at the Turn 13–14 chicane, where the Briton was about 6 kilometers per hour slower on average compared to his direct rivals.
At the same time, Ferrari lacks front-end grip due to graining. Tyre performance drop-off led to various approaches in lap times at the beginning of the race simulation. The aim was to manage the onset of front-end graining, a limiting factor during long runs in free practice. This type of tyre wear is linked to the thermal management of the front axle, which is not heavily loaded at the Montreal circuit where traction phases dominate.
Lewis Hamilton took an aggressive approach at the start of the stint and encountered front-end grip loss earlier. Based on the telemetry data collected from the second free practice session at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, also due to traffic on track, his tyre degradation was worse compared to his rivals. The Ferrari driver lacked front-end grip in sector three, precisely because of this pronounced wear.
Unlike the first two-thirds of the lap, the final part features straights that lower tyre temperatures and consequently reduce grip. Max Verstappen, on the other hand, managed his tyre temperatures better thanks to a more cautious start to the stint. This approach might not be viable during the race, but it allowed him to get more out of the tyre in the latter stages.
Mercedes and McLaren encountered similar issues to Lewis Hamilton, albeit less severe, paying the price at the end of the stint. Ferrari started well, but still needs to work to fight at the front. The absence of one car certainly limited the ability to compare data between the two drivers and, as a result, the Maranello team’s performance development—an area where Charles Leclerc could definitely have made a difference.
Lewis Hamilton repeatedly asked his engineer how to improve the final chicane, but without having Charles Leclerc’s data to help guide him. As for the Monegasque, today he will have to rely on the references gathered by the seven-time Formula 1 world champion to properly prepare and build confidence during the final free practice session, ahead of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
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