Scuderia Ferrari finished the qualifying session for the Spa-Francorchamps in P11 and P13, but both drivers will gain two positions on the starting grid for the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix as a result of the penalties received by Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris who will have to use a new gearbox after his crash in Q3.
After the free practice session yesterday morning the same concerns emerged as yesterday, with a Ferrari car that is not able to put enough energy on the front tires if the temperatures are low with a low downforce configuration. The intermediate tires have a significantly lower operating window than slicks, in any case they still need the car to develop a good overall downforce to activate them because they are much faster than wet ones.
The SF21 car sadly missed the ideal operating window. Carlos Sainz at the end of qualifying said he was surprised: “I didn’t expect to have these problems considering how the car behaved at Imola, even in the wet I didn’t have a good feeling.
True in part.
The SF21 at Imola had shown a good overall performance in wet conditions. But in that case, the technicians from Maranello chose a higher downforce setup than on Friday, precisely to protect the race that was expected to be wet. The car at Imola had a lot more downforce, more than McLaren; in fact after the red flag in drier track conditions Norris managed to pass Charles Leclerc, while before the stop in the wet he remained 30 seconds behind the Monegasque. The Ferrari driver will no longer be able to pass Lando again due to the lower speed on the straight.
Yesterday in qualifying the direction taken was the opposite: Ferrari opted to keep Baku’s very flat wing rather than use a configuration that would have been better for the SF21’s ability to cope with the conditions. Of course, any choice would have been a risk in the race because Spa, unlike Imola, has much longer straights where it is impossible to defend in the dry, with a lot of downforce and less horsepower. To clarify this point better: low temperatures in themselves are not the problem, they become so when the red car has to drive on poor grip and with low downforce (therefore less impact on the front too). The root of the problem is always that missing horsepower which has a big impact on a track like Belgium.
For this reason, in Maranello there is the confidence of being able to fully show the qualities on the SF21 with the introduction of the PU4. Between free practice and qualifying, Mattia Binotto’s engineers knew that without changing anything they would face a bad qualifying.
There were two solutions: go to a mechanical setup that could help in a dry race – especially at high speeds and out of corners – or load the car more (like in Imola) hoping for a completely wet race.
The Ferrari drivers – Carlos Sainz in particular – lost a lot of time in the changes of direction while the gap remained minimal in S3, with a time even better than Russell. This would show a stiff car but remained strong in traction, for example coming out of the last chicane, despite the poor grip, suggests that the engineers have finally chosen the first solution. The hope, reiterated in the evening, is that it won’t rain. However, the problem remains on a track with poor grip at best, so it will be interesting to evaluate the choice, in one case or another.
A great George Russell on the front row at Spa
Ferrari would need some of Williams’ downforce. Goerge Russell’s performance in qualifying evoked some great performances from the past. The Englishman pulled something really important out of his Williams and it’s not the first time. Being in the front row at Spa – in such conditions and not yet with a Mercedes – it is a huge achievement. If Spa is the university, he graduated.
The driver of the Grove team performed at a very high level in qualifying using a car that is basically equipped with a lot of downforce, relying on the Mercedes Power Unit that partially compensates for its excessive drag in normal conditions.
Russell finished 3 tenths off pole, those lost in S3 where his time was 31.722 against Verstappen’s 31.413 – but he beat Hamilton and managed to set a time very similar to the W12 (significantly lower) in the slower section of 55 seconds. Basically in the rest of the lap they were equal, with George stronger out of Eau Rouge, close to Max in S2 thanks to his talent that allowed him to fully capitalize the good downforce generated by the FW43B and the good work of the technicians.
Obviously, another Englishman, Lando Norris, was missing from the fight on the front row, but that’s another story.
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