It was undoubtedly a disappointing weekend for Ferrari from various aspects. The Losail circuit didn’t favor the Scuderia, and it showed. Could they have done better? Perhaps. Nevertheless, certain limitations of a car are challenging to minimize. Charles Leclerc gave it his all, and all in all, the fifth place in Qatar may suffice. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz, due to reliability issues with car number 55, couldn’t even take his place on the starting grid.
Let’s begin today’s analysis by discussing the tires. The issues with the Pirelli tires had altered the strategies. The maximum number of laps permitted on each set of tires was significantly reduced. Teams were also provided with a table summarizing all remaining laps for each set of tires at their disposal right from the start. Although making three pit stops wasn’t mandatory, it was a logical consequence of the previously established “rules.” Below, we present the relevant table.
Source: FUnoanalisitecnica
In the perspective of planning for three pit stops, Lewis Hamilton opted to start with the Soft tires. He hoped to capitalize on the extra grip for a quick getaway. Unfortunately for Mercedes, the contact with his own teammate effectively ruined his race. After the Safety Car allowed the stewards to restore the necessary conditions for racing, Max Verstappen tried to establish a safety margin over Oscar Piastri in the McLaren. Nevertheless, the Australian showed remarkable pace with the Medium tires, managing to keep up with Red Bull car number 1.
Ferrari: A Red Car Struggling to Keep Pace with the Best
As we can observe in the graph below, the talent from Hasselt pushed hard in the first stint with the used yellow tires. This compound could be used for a maximum of 17 laps. Calculating the average lap times, he managed to be more than half a second faster than Oscar Piastri. With a full tank of fuel, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was the fourth-fastest, behind Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes. In this phase, George Russell was a tenth quicker, while Leclerc’s performance was on par with Fernando Alonso, the driver ahead of him on the track.
Source: FUnoanalisitecnica
With the special tire rules mentioned earlier, the International Federation effectively removed a variable for the strategists. Each team could precisely know the lap on which their competitors would pit (at most). This represents a clear limit to the tactics used on the track. For example, Fernando Alonso made his pit stop a lap earlier than the maximum permitted, stopping on the eleventh lap.
Charles Leclerc started with the scrubbed medium tires (code 202) and made his first pit stop on the twelfth lap. He performed a one-lap overcut on Fernando Alonso, but as soon as Alonso’s medium (used) tires warmed up, the Spaniard managed to retake the position on the track.
After the first-lap contact, Russell opted for another set of used Pirelli yellow tires, with which he completed 13 laps, aligning himself with the frontrunners’ strategy. The British driver showed excellent pace in an attempt to recover, being just one average tenth behind Oscar Piastri. He didn’t try to use new Hard tires, mainly because he couldn’t extend the stint excessively due to the rule imposed by the FIA. After the first round of pit stops, all frontrunners switched to the yellow tires.
Source :FUnoanalisitecnica
In the second stint, Max Verstappen continued to maintain a gap of nearly seven average tenths per lap over Oscar Piastri. In this second part of the race, Russell was the second-fastest on the track, succeeding in making the used medium tires work very effectively. During this phase of the race, Alonso was half a second faster than Charles Leclerc, even though they were using the same tire compound. Charles Leclerc was unable to exceed 13 laps on his used medium tires, and he struggled with tire degradation.
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On the 25th lap, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc made their second pit stops. Oscar Piastri mounted another set of new medium tires, while Leclerc attempted a different strategy by trying the Hard tires. Shortly afterward, Norris stopped to follow his teammate’s strategy. Russell, who had already used the new yellow tires earlier, was able to extend his stint until the 32nd lap before switching to new white tires.
Source :FUnoanalisitecnica
Verstappen was the last among the frontrunners to pit, coming in on the 34th lap because he had been using virtually new tires. The strategists in Milton Keynes decided to put a new Hard tire on the reigning world champion’s car. Trying to summarize what we have seen today, looking at the table preceding this paragraph, it appears that McLaren dominated the race, but in reality, there’s more to it. With only one driver in the race, Mercedes assumed the role of the third-fastest team, hovering around four-tenths of an average lap time behind Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, on the other hand, was the fourth-fastest, essentially managing to stay ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. The red car lagged by six-tenths per lap, a value similar to that of the two-time F1 world champion. Below, we provide an analysis of the evolution of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri’s lap times.
Source :FUnoanalisitecnica
We notice that around the 40th lap, Max began to ease off. During this time, Lando Norris’ McLaren was very fast, and the final data on the overall pace we observed a moment ago provides a misleading picture. Verstappen was merely merely managing his lead by significantly reducing his pace with the Soft tires.
Source: Alessandro Arcari and Niccoló Arnerich for FUnoanalisitecnica
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