Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc had a lightning bolt start from second place on the grid in the Imola Sprint race on Saturday, taking the lead from Max Verstappen with full merit, while on Sunday the Monegasque was not able to repeat the strong start, losing two places at the end of the first lap.
The first start took place on dry track and with slick tires, while the second on wet track and with intermediate tires. From the television footage it emerged that the row of cars that started behind Charles Leclerc slipped more than those which were behind Red Bull in pole position, but Motorsport Italy pointed out an interesting aspect which is rather unknown and may have led to Charles’ unfortunate start in the Emilia Romagna GP at the Imola circuit.
Giorgio Piola, the Motorsport technical expert, was on the starting grid to photograph the F1 teams lined up, when he almost slipped past Charles Leclerc’s F1-75. The Italian journalist wore rubber-soled boat shoes and was very surprised by the total lack of grip on a bitumen asphalt strip which was put to cover the previous starting line.
“I’m afraid that Charles Leclerc risks a bad start – said Giorgio, in a phone call with the editorial office before the race – between the front and rear axles of his Ferrari there is a stretch of asphalt that is terribly slippery in the rain and I almost fell just walking. I can imagine what could happen to Charles because there is no grip … “.
And in fact, the first movement of the red #16 when the traffic lights went out was sudden, only to skate immediately afterwards with the rear wheels that lost grip on the black asphalt strip.
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In the images that Motorsport Italy showed us, that were taken after the end of the race by Roberto Chinchero, when the asphalt was already dry, it is possible to clearly see the strip of track that has been treated to cover what was underneath: the data of the Ferrari telemetry can confirm whether Charles Leclerc actually began to slip not because of a wrong start, but because of a different grip on the asphalt which made useless all the tests that had been done precisely to avoid this problem.
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