On the first day of the 2021 French Grand Prix weekend, it was Max Verstappen who led the way and the final standings and not at all surprisingly, the two Mercedes car were right behind him. Fifth time for Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc who finished the second free practice session behind the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. The good results also continue for Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri, once again in an excellent position.
Let’s now focus on Scuderia Ferrari’s Friday practice: for the Maranello team, this round of the 2021 Formula 1 season is an important test. Tyre management, both in qualifying and in the race, will be extremely crucial and for now it seems that the potential on the flying is there. However, the Soft compound seems an unsuitable choice for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc managed to put together a good lap only in the last attempts of the day, but it was enough for a fifth place that is worth a lot. The Monegasque driver lost 2 tenths to Max Verstappen in each sector and the difficulty lies in being able to get to the last straight with the Soft tyre still active. Overall, the fast circuits remain unsatisfactory to the SF21, but the Italian side will try to make the most of its potential.
Luckily for Ferrari, the difficulties continue for McLaren, once again unable to challenge for the front of the midfield, as the pace simply seems to be missing. It shouldn’t be a question of tyre management as activating them is not too complicated on this circuit. Daniel Ricciardo still suffers as compared to his teammate. During FP2 we could hear many suggestions that were provided to the Australian driver by his race engineer through radio communications, but Norris still managed to interpret some sections of the track better.
Good result for Antonio Giovinazzi, one step away from the top ten. The Italian will have to work with the engineers to improve the balance of the car tomorrow. The two Aston Martins are once again in trouble and on fast tracks with many fast corners they seem unable to extract the potential of the car. However the two drivers said they have understood the direction to take tomorrow.
Let’s now pass to the analysis of the race pace: if we look at the high fuel simulations it is clear that the teams followed different programs. Ferrari focused their work on the Hard tyre, while Mercedes decided to divide the tasks between the two drivers: Bottas used the Soft compound and Hamilton the Mediums. The same goes for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen who tested the mediums and Sergio Perez the Softs. The Dutchman himself set the benchmark for the race and showed a consistent pace of 37.8. Only Bottas with Softs came close to his performance keeping a pace of 38.1. Already from this data it can be understood that the ideal tyres for the race will be the Medium compounds: the yellow tyre for this appointment would be the C3, which resembles the 2018 Softs, which is a compound that manages to generate a lot of grip even at higher temperatures.
Not far from the leading group we find the two Alpines, who maintained a good pace with both types of compound. Also around a time of 39.0 we find the Alpha Tauri with Gasly. A little further behind Sebastian Vettel, who seems to have more pace in the race than in qualifying. Only Carlos Sainz and Bottas continued the simulation of the race with a second stint, as the Ferrari driver tried the Soft, while Bottas the Mediums. With the yellow tire the Finn kept a very competitive pace, a sign that Mercedes will definitely have a say in the race.
As for the race strategy, many will try to qualify for Q2 with the Medium tyre, in order to avoid the Soft for the start of the race. From then on, it will be important to manage the degradation of the compounds as the French track is very demanding from this point of view. Given the long and fast corners, the compounds tend to overheat easily. Thermal degradation will therefore be a very important issue and will be the key to the race. A strategy with only one pit stop seems more likely, but a second stop could also be taken into consideration as the track allows more overtaking opportunities and at the same time taking into account the degradation, the overcut should give better results.
To conclude, Red Bull seems to be the favorite in terms of race management. On the other hand, Mercedes seems to still have something more in qualifying, while Ferrari will attempt to defend third place.
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