Imola GP: Ferrari aero package ok, stint on medium tires main limit for SF-24

Ferrari on the podium with Charles Leclerc in its home race at the Imola circuit, Lando Norris second and Max Verstappen wins yet again. The strategy before the start of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was planned for a single stop. Very straightforward to minimize the time spent in the pit lane, which costs a good 28 seconds of race time. Making one more stop would have made the pace more competitive compared to the other cars, but overtaking is very complicated and the tactic was mandatory.

Various teams strongly tried to avoid the red-banded Pirelli tire, the Soft to be clear, whose use was undoubtedly much more difficult. The fastest strategy on paper was to start with the Medium compound and then switch to the Hard tire in the second stint, thereby making it to the end. The keys to the race strategy were thus track position, the pace shown by the drivers in the two long runs with a high amount of fuel on board, and possible undercuts.

F1, Ferrari suffers from rear temperatures

After the start, Max Verstappen tried to push in the very first laps to build a safety gap. With a series of fast laps, he managed to build a 4.8-second advantage over Lando Norris after 15 laps. Charles Leclerc managed to stay quite close to the British driver. For the stop, the top 5 were waiting to exit Sergio Perez’s pit stop window, in eighth position. On the 19th lap, the Briton from McLaren was warned that his window was open. In the event of any incident on track, he would have returned to the box.

At that moment, the Englishman was trying to manage the rear tires, especially in turn 7, as warned by the pit wall. The front end was not a big problem, but the team was more concerned about the micro-slips that can occur during traction. In the Ferrari camp, however, they told Charles Leclerc that they were leaning towards plan B, which could have been an extension of the pit stop or, more unlikely, a two-stop strategy. The most likely information was a delay in the pit stop, given that the degradation was in line with what the teams expected.

In the first stint, Red Bull was basically unbeatable. Both Ferrari and McLaren used the rear tires a bit too much, and thus struggled to maintain Verstappen’s pace. As we will see later, this is where Lando Norris lost the race. In numerical terms, Max Verstappen managed to pull away from Lando by about 0.2 seconds per lap, which then allowed him to win the race. Charles Leclerc struggled a bit more with the Medium tires compared to the McLaren MCL38 in front of him, staying about 0.1 seconds behind on average.

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On the 23rd lap, Charles Leclerc was told “box opposite Norris,” meaning he should pit if the McLaren driver in front of him, Lando Norris, did not pit. Lando did pit, thus defending against a potential undercut from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari SF-24. Upon exiting the pit, Lando Norris found himself behind the Red Bull RB20 of Sergio Perez. They miscalculated the window, but fortunately for them, the Englishman passed Sergio Perez on the next lap. Oscar Piastri also pitted on the 24th lap to switch to Hard tires, ending up behind the Mexican as well. On lap 25, Max Verstappen also pitted, switched to Hard tires, and came out behind Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari stayed out for two more laps and were warned from the pit box that they would come out behind Sergio Perez at that moment. They decided to pit anyway, considering that the Mexican had been on Hard tires for 25 laps, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to pass him on the track. They immediately informed Charles Leclerc not to push his Ferrari’s tires too hard to overtake Checo and not to hurry. With Carlos Sainz, they stayed out longer, almost hoping for an event on the track, like a Safety Car or a Virtual Safety Car, in order to cut the pit stop time in half.

The Spaniard then pitted but lost position to Oscar Piastri, who had effectively performed an undercut. With the Hard tires, the teams experienced greater degradation than expected. The drivers’ challenge was to manage the tires through every corner. Charles Leclerc did well in this, managing to get closer to Norris. The Monegasque driver worked hard to minimize stress on the rear tires during traction, following the pit box instructions.

In the battle between Lando Norris’s McLaren and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, several instructions also came from the McLaren pit wall, with the British driver’s engineer suggesting different lines to maximize acceleration out of some turns. Towards the end, the MCL38 number 4 tried to put pressure on Max Verstappen, who was at risk of a penalty for track limits and couldn’t push too hard. Additionally, he seemed to have some rear overheating issues.

Lando Norris was very attentive to this aspect. Remembering the first stint, he tried to use the front tires more to protect the rear, and indeed, towards the end, he managed to save quite a bit of tire to attempt a comeback on Max. With a Safety Car or a Virtual Safety Car in the second half of the race, Lando would almost certainly have been able to win the Grand Prix, though he would obviously have had to overtake Max on the track, which is not an easy maneuver.

The numbers are also clear. On average, Lando Norris was a tenth of a second per lap faster than Max Verstappen, who couldn’t fully exploit the Hard tires, struggling with the rear overheating. Charles Leclerc was also slightly faster than the RB20 number 1. Ferrari and McLaren seem to use the tires more similarly compared to Red Bull. The most positive sign for Ferrari is that the upgrades are working, although this won’t be clearly seen on this track and the next one. Moreover, the updated SF-24 is just a starting point to understand how to exploit the potential through the setup.

After 18 years, Ferrari therefore returned to the podium at Imola, thanks to Charles Leclerc’s third place finish. The Monegasque driver ended his race almost eight seconds behind the leading duo of Verstappen and Norris, who fiercely battled each other in terms of pace, not body to body, in the last ten laps, with the Briton consistently faster than the three-time world champion. However, this was not enough for Lando to secure his second consecutive victory, which he probably deserved. But Max, despite facing many problems especially towards the end, once again demonstrated why he is an amazing driver, following his exceptional pole position on Saturday, even though he was helped by Hulkenberg. Overall, it was still a good podium for the Scuderia and for Charles himself, now second in the championship.

The new Ferrari SF-24 works, which is an undeniable fact, but this does not immediately translate to victory. After all, other F1 teams also bring developments and updates. We can say that with this first major step, the gaps have narrowed, at least at Imola. Monaco will already be a different experience, as also mentioned by team principal Frederic Vasseur, but this could be the case for much of the races remaining from now until Abu Dhabi.

Charles Leclerc celebrates with the tifosi, also taking second place in the world championship at the expense of a more than disastrous Sergio Perez in a weekend where Red Bull seemed beatable, hence with problems, but with a Max Verstappen capable of making the difference, unlike the vulnerable Mexican. For his part, Charles couldn’t have done any more at Imola, and without the mistake at Variante Alta while trying to follow Norris, probably little would have changed, given that the Monegasque’s tires were at their limit.

It is clear that Ferrari now needs to work on qualifying, a factor that will be crucial, even more so than at Imola, in five days’ time when the qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix will take place. Apart from 2022, when the Scuderia decided to throw away a one-two finish, securing pole position in Monaco becomes essential if they want to have a good chance of winning on Sunday, so this is an aspect the red team will need to focus on.

The Ferrari that struggled the most was once again Carlos Sainz’s. The Spanish driver, fifth at the finish line, did not have the pace to keep up with Piastri, who was laboriously kept behind in the first stint with the medium tires, then seen speeding past after the pit stop due to an incomprehensible delay by the Scuderia in bringing him in. The strategy, therefore, was penalizing for the Matador, who, however, suffered quite a bit with the SF-24 EVO, also due to some anomaly that he obviously did not want to reveal. Sainz did not want to elaborate on the issues affecting his car, but apart from this, it seems clear that he was not comfortable right from Friday. The feeling is that the updates on the new SF-24, have gone more in the direction of Charles Leclerc’s driving style, something that seems obvious given the contract signed with the Monegasque and the departure of the Spaniard at the end of the current championship.

Charles Leclerc, SF-24 Imola