Scuderia Ferrari fails to seize the opportunity in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race, which was held earlier today at the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit. The two SF-24 cars remain stuck behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, who, starting ahead, did not have the pace of the red cars. The beginning of the article indirectly suggests how important qualifying is in certain situations in Formula 1, especially if the race is short and there isn’t much time to regain positions. Undoubtedly a real shame because the chance to be ahead of one of the two Red Bulls, especially the one of Sergio Perez, was there.
Another interesting aspect is the internal battle of the Ferrari drivers. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc almost made contact on two occasions, with the Monegasque ultimately prevailing and finishing the mini race ahead of his Maranello teammate.
Let’s rewind the tape. To face the first of the six Sprint Races which are scheduled for the 2024 Formula 1 championship, there were few doubts about the tire side: the medium-compound Pirelli was the optimal tire for the single stint to be faced. A tire that strikes the right compromise between “usable life and performance”. This considering the 19 laps to cross the finish line. It was also possible to take risks by using the Soft tire. The only driver to do so was George Russell. The strategists were left with a decision: new or used set? Some teams split the strategy, as did Scuderia Ferrari, for example.
Charles Leclerc chose to keep two new Medium tires to use today in the qualifying session and tomorrow in the Chinese Grand Prix. On the contrary, Carlos Sainz, starting behind the three-time world champion Max Verstappen, decided to mount a new set of three. The target was to be able to take advantage of extra grip that could bring benefits during the early laps of the Sprint Race, helping the Spaniard to get ahead of the Dutchman. The summary of the compounds of the Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli is available in this image.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the performance analysis of this sprint race, examining the most important factors of this first preview of competition in Shanghai.
Ferrari SF-24 wastes a great opportunity.
During the early laps of the Sprint Race, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso managed to pull away from the group forming just behind. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion with fresh medium tires and Fernando Alonso, instead, with a used set. Carlos Sainz had a lot of pace in the early laps of the sprint, enough to attempt the decisive attack on Max Verstappen. The Dutchman at that moment was sliding a bit too much, as to defend himself he demanded a lot from his tires, even in his case used. As the laps went by, Lewis Hamilton’s tire degradation increased exponentially.
For this reason, the current leader of the drivers’ world championship was able to approach without too many problems, completing the decisive overtake after easily passing Fernando Alonso as well. From that moment on, the future Ferrari driver maintained as clean a drive as possible, considering that his W15 didn’t have much traction, and in the slower sectors of the track, the German car seemed to lack grip, especially at the rear. This aspect increased the wear on the rear, making it difficult to maintain the tire temperature window.
However, the British driver managed to optimize his performance and, taking advantage of Fernando Alonso’s great bottleneck on the rest of the pack, caught up with the first podium of the 2024 Formula 1 season, securing a well-deserved second position. As mentioned, Fernando Alonso blocked the Ferrari cars of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, as well as the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez. The Spaniard created a train of drivers, suffering from degradation. In this sense, compared to the chasers, he was not competitive at all, but as always, his defensive skills were impressive, managing to get everything out of the limited potential of his car. Moving on to the Prancing Horse, we can say that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were able to maximize the degradation on the medium compound, staging excellent tire management dictated progressively by the Italian pit wall with expertise.
There remains regret for the Maranello team because, as emphasized at the beginning of the article, the race pace to reach the podium with both SF-24 cars was frankly within reach. Lastly, a few words on Lando Norris. His start was certainly not the best, with Lewis Hamilton alongside him in turn 1 enjoying the better trajectory. The McLaren driver was forced to go wide, going off track and losing many positions. The MCL38 showed a lot of degradation, even defined as massive over the team radio. There was also excessive rear sliding. The insufficient downforce was clear, a setup chosen in order to maximize straight-line speeds and limit drag, which made the rear too light.
The Shanghai Sprint was therefore enjoyable, but it needs to be framed within a specific context, which at one point generated quite a bit of action on the track and, at the same time, obscured the potential performances of the cars. Even the hierarchy appears to be the usual in this start of the 2024 Formula 1 season and unchanged despite the starting positions.
After taking the lead, Lewis Hamilton tried to find his pace, but his W15 was no match, actually slow and difficult to drive on this track compared to Max Verstappen, who took the lead and quickly disappeared into the distance.
The key for the Dutchman was to have a surplus of performance that guaranteed him a quick and clean overtake on Fernando Alonso, with the Aston Martin driver who then had a fundamental influence on the race result, despite retiring.
Once Max Verstappen passed, Fernando Alonso found himself in third position having to defend from the approaching Carlos Sainz without even being able to use the drag reduction system to try to maintain his position. A vicious circle is triggered between the two, which characterizes much of the middle phase of the race, as is clear from the telemetry data. The lack of traction in the sections with higher lateral load noticed yesterday on the SF-24 is glaringly evident at the exit of turn 13, which leads onto the long straight, the prime overtaking opportunity, with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari staying closely behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin for the entire lap but unable to contain his surge in that section. Carlos Sainz’s tires also suffered from an early battle with Max Verstappen, and the Ferrari driver seems to have a rear out of the temperature window without having the opportunity to let it breathe given the constant traffic he’s in, with Fernando Alonso ahead slower and Sergio Perez behind in great pressure to take the position.
What emerged in this race is the difficult compromise situation that the Shanghai track forces drivers and teams into. On one hand, the long medium-speed corners put enormous stress on the front end, which needs to be protected with an aerodynamic and mechanical balance shifted towards the front. On the other hand, in overtaking and defending maneuvers, traction plays such a fundamental role that if the balance is shifted too much to the front end, you end up getting stuck behind a slower car or defenseless in close battles. It’s not a coincidence that Sergio Perez himself opened up on the radio during the race, complaining about not having enough traction, and reportedly, according to Sky in the post-race coverage, the Mexican decided to make setup changes to his RB20 taking advantage of the new parc ferme rules.
Source: FUnoanalisitecnica
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