Sprint Qualifying analysis: small setup window for Ferrari SF-24 in Spielberg | 2024 Austrian GP. Red Bull has a wide operating range, unlike the Ferrari SF-24.

Austria, the eleventh round of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship. Ferrari continues to struggle with adaptation issues already highlighted in Spain on Friday. Despite last week’s updates, the red car is disappointing, as a step forward was expected but has not arrived. Today we can clearly state that the SF-24 car is the fourth fastest in Spielberg. There was only one practice session in the morning, which certainly did not help. The base setup of the SF-24 did not work at all, exactly as it did last weekend. Charles Leclerc complained about a significant lack of mechanical grip at low speeds: turn 1, but especially turn 3.

The Monegasque driver returned to the pits to vary the setup on several fronts: he adjusted the ride heights by acting on the front third element, also lowering the stiffness of the car by one step. There was an improvement, but it was not enough to solve the problems. Various settings of the switches were tested to try to cure the car’s behavior. There is also the issue with the power unit, mainly related to aerodynamic efficiency. This technical aspect does not allow the two Ferraris to gain on the straights, in an attempt to somehow compensate for the gap in the corners.

Overall, the rear was a bit too light, once again. Both drivers were forced to make several corrections. The balance in the fast section was quite good, but as we will see later, not effective. The rear end is becoming a problem also because, as Carlos Sainz mentioned, the car tends to be excessively front-heavy. The RB20 is once again on pole position, but it was not an extremely easy day for Red Bull either. In the first runs, Max Verstappen complained about uncomfortable handling on the bumps of the track, such as the multiple curbs that need to be climbed to widen the racing line.

One of their strengths is certainly traction. In this first part of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, the reigning world champion team builds the lap in the cornering exit phase, struggling to have much stability on entry. Overall, their strength is high-to-low balance. In other words, Red Bull has a sufficiently broad setup range that allows them to achieve a good setup in the two macro areas of the track: the fast and the slow sections. This is a characteristic also shared by McLaren, which somehow always manages to find a window in which the MCL38 car works well.

Red Bull has a wide operating range, and today they did what Ferrari wanted to do: exploit their strengths. The Prancing Horse, in trying to favor the exit, penalized the corner entry too much. Summing up the overall balance of the corner, they lost precious time. This is exactly how McLaren managed to take the best time from Max Verstappen in the central sector. The SF-24 falls short in this point compared to both cars. The RB20 has more downforce, as we analyzed yesterday.

For this reason, it gains in the cornering phase. Ferrari, on the other hand, tried not to reduce the downforce too much, but from turn 6 onwards, there are many areas where they lost performance. The Ferrari drivers tried not to lift off the throttle too much to carry more speed through the corners. This practice might provide a slight gain, but today the gap to Red Bull increased steadily. The SF-24 is the slowest car among the three in turns 6 and 7. As last year, the Ferrari drivers were forced to delay hitting the accelerator, significantly penalizing the subsequent corners.

In sector 3, the gap to the poleman increased constantly, losing more than 0.2 seconds. Overall, Carlos Sainz‘s fifth place is the result of several factors. A mechanical setup that did not pay off because no benefit came in the fast sections. The rear was generally unstable on exit, limiting performance. A lack of downforce was necessary to compensate for lower top speeds, a characteristic of a less efficient car. It is clear how the range of the setup is short, making it difficult to hit the car’s operating window.

F1| Sprint Qualifying Austria: McLaren sacrifices entry for traction, Ferrari does not succeed

The the 4.318-kilometre Red Bull Ring in Spielberg is very technical, so the car matters, but also the lines a driver can take based on how they exploit the car at their disposal. The first sector has only the first corner, and it is here that McLaren optimizes the exit phase very well, continuing to gain up to turn 2. At turn 3, Max Verstappen does better on braking, but in traction, the MCL38 cars make the difference again. Sacrificing entry to favor the exit made the difference for them, contrary to what happened with the Italian cars.

Red Bull, during free practice 1, worked a lot on the second sector. They did this because Max Verstappen was losing too much in the entry to turn 4, a corner with significant negative banking. Throughout the traction phase of turn 5, Lando Norris gained ground, carrying a lot of speed towards turn 6. While at turn 7, the Dutchman dominated again, managing to go faster through this section towards the last part of the track. Between turns 9 and 10, the world champion exited very well. Max Verstappen could even improve performance in the last corner, where he made a bigger difference last year.

Source: FUnoanalisitecnica