An embarrassment, yet another for Ferrari in Formula 1. The issue is again about tires, because despite Ferrari boasting the expert Loic Serra, a theoretical tire expert, the SF-25 shows no intention of activating them. It’s a shame because the balance wasn’t bad, but failing to get the necessary grip means any Williams can easily beat you by half a second.
Disaster foretold by FP3
The situation is quite tragic, as overtaking at Imola is far from easy. Considering that in Friday’s race pace simulation Ferrari performed quite well, starting so far back on the grid will be very limiting for their objectives. Not to mention that Imola is the home Grand Prix, and the disappointment suffered by the Scuderia’s supporters is hard to digest.
Tomorrow is another day, and motorsport’s highest category has taught us that anything can happen. However, imagining a positive scenario seems rather difficult at the moment. It’s frustrating, to say the least, because the Maranello car had the potential to run a good race given the pace shown in the second free practice session. All that remains is to swallow yet another disappointment, knowing that the road to improvement is long.
The phrase “unexpressed potential” is often used, and perhaps this afternoon, considering the problem with poor tire management, that definition fits perfectly. However, it is quite frustrating that this situation can’t be resolved. The Italian team never does things halfway: either it destroys the tires or it can’t activate them. A scenario repeating itself for many years now. Will it continue much longer?
Ferrari: why it can’t activate the tires
In Q3 there were Haas and Sauber cars equipped with Ferrari engines—a pitiful result indeed. All weekend we analyzed how the SF-25 was in the fight for second place. So let’s try to understand what happened. There were some problems, such as a certain degree of understeer, which made it difficult to hit certain apexes. Nothing new, as we have pointed out since the start of the year, as explained yesterday.
Today, most of the percentage gap the Italian car suffers is due to the tires. These, we underline, are currently the most important parameter, and much of the final result depends on their behavior. In the final free practice session, Charles Leclerc gave a very interesting comment. The Monegasque complained about a huge “split” between front and rear.
To bring the tire up to temperature, it must be heated both superficially and in the bulk, that is, in the inner zone. Heating the surface is relatively easy, but the challenge for all teams is also to reach the inside. Especially in the early parts of the lap, the SF-25 fails to reach the required target at the front, while it does at the rear. This creates a great thermal asynchrony between the axles.
Pirelli C6 hard to digest for Ferrari
The new Pirelli C6 compound played a fundamental role in this scenario. We are talking about a new compound that no one really understood well, and on which, before this weekend, no one spent time running laps. Every tire has a different range in which it expresses its maximum grip level. Moreover, you need to understand how to warm it up during the out-lap, exactly what Ferrari failed to grasp.
So much so that with used tires they performed better than with new ones. This means they struggled too much to activate them, and there is no way around it. Consider that Mercedes mounted the yellow compound for Q3. Surely Ferrari’s choice to use the Soft compound has reasons behind it, but objectively the W16 made the better, more practical decision. Ferrari just never gets there.
— see video above —
Leave a Reply