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It’s hard to predict the race. Ferrari opted to protect the tires with high DF, their tires were lasting both in FP and in Quali. When you do that the one lap pace suffers.
I would hold my horses for the race. All the important corners were Ferrari dominant even during qualifying laps. I think there’s a bit of an over reaction going on now due to missed expectations which I understand but still think points are Sunday.
What is worrying me is that Leclerc was quite happy after Friday and very disappointed today as the car behaved in a very different way on track, like they went backwards for whatever reason. Tomorrow we'll get our answers.
LEC: "I lost the feeling with the car already halfway through FP3, it just got worse in Qualifying and I couldn't maximise the result. Yesterday the car felt very good on the front, but this morning in FP3 already that feeling was gone.
Lower fuel, more front tire pressure. It happens, it’s not the same as last year.
All of the fast cars at the minute have a narrow operating window over one lap.
Alonso broke two floors in quali and finished behind stroll, Ham out in Q2, RB gained over 0.5s between Q2 and Q3
The tyres are sensitive especially the C5s and with the field convergence it means if conditions slightly go away from you the quali result can go away and it feels dramatic
Leclerc's balance hadn't been correct all day. They swapped beamwing to the single element between Friday and Saturday (@scuderiabrandon for this info) and there was of course the front tyre pressure change. Among other setup changes for him. Carlos made an error in Q3 that cost multiple tenths so I'm not sure if the car fell off or just outlier / pressure getting to him
Last edited by organic on 23 Mar 2024, 20:01, edited 1 time in total.
“The C5 is the softest compound in the Pirelli range,” continues Berra. “If the C4 we saw in Jeddah was already very high-performance, but with a very narrow grip peak , the C5 is from the same family of compounds and has very similar behaviour. If you are unable to balance the temperatures of the front with the rear, you risk not having the front tires ready, ending up suffering from understeer and having to apply large steering wheel angles. At the end of the lap, this causes you to oversteer, due to the fact that the front was initially missing."
This is the same thing he mentioned after Jeddah Q, Leclerc had unbalanced temperatures and less adhesive grip in his first run. In his 2nd run he didn't hit the temperature window perfectly, but there was better balance between axles and more adhesive grip since he only did 1 out lap before push lap.
It looks like the way to balance tyre Q and Race performance the best way would be to leave something on the table in Q in terms of outright pace. It's hardly a coincidence Max rarely seems to be really pushing on his Q3 laps. Last year Ferrari were able to hit the Q window very well, but always at the cost of race pace - either entirely or "only" on Hards. It was a similar situation in 2022, but less pronounced and often related to big temperature fluctuations during the race.
Ferrari may have gone a bit too much towards the race pace with SF24 design and sacrificed the capability to consistently hit the Q tyre window in low-fuel trim. In any case, I understand now why Vasseur insists they need to find 4 tenths more than RB, whatever RB is doing and however they are managing their tyres this is what Ferrari needs to be able to consistently challenge them and have a bit of margin to be able to manage this Q window in the right way. Until they get that from aero side, they will try to do what they can.
These Pirellis are just as unacceptable of a product as they were when they had just entered the sport 13 years ago
It’ll be interesting to see what race pace looks like. There’s a weird irony that this race broke Leclerc’s front row streak on a weekend they looked stronger than usual (barring LV); Charles himself said the feeling went away from him in Saturday but it seems to be a lot to do with tyre preparation - where one axle or another was out - but that also sounds more like the typical Perez type issue, which comes back during a race.
I suspect 2-3 is a possibility and hopefully with a little bit of pressure for Max such that any mistakes or random events (safety cases etc) are capitalised on. It’s a shame it’s not 2-3 on the grid though as that would really help with pressurising (eg 2018).
These Pirellis are just as unacceptable of a product as they were when they had just entered the sport 13 years ago
Agreed, but this is what is required of them. Teams are now used to this and wouldn't want them to change too much since then they'd all need to relearn everything... So it's not just FOM's request, like it was in Ecclestone's time
Actually the other important thing will be switching the tyres used in the race vs quali. Both teams were comfortable on mediums but arguably Ferrari will be closer on that tyre than the soft, which was just a very tricky tyre. Hards are a complete unknown which I suspect will mean folks starting on mediums and then gauging how the race progresses - likely moving to hard and trying for a one stop but also potentially the front teams may use others as Guinea pigs and could switch to a two stopper with a middle stint on softs before reverting to mediums. I can’t see people risking starting in hards and losing places with a total unknown.
Vanja #66 wrote:
Ferrari may have gone a bit too much towards the race pace with SF24 design and sacrificed the capability to consistently hit the Q tyre window in low-fuel trim. In any case, I understand now why Vasseur insists they need to find 4 tenths more than RB, whatever RB is doing and however they are managing their tyres this is what Ferrari needs to be able to consistently challenge them and have a bit of margin to be able to manage this Q window in the right way. Until they get that from aero side, they will try to do what they can.
If I had known you were writing the same thing as me I would have waited . Now we look like fools.
That "same thing" sounds to me as the best explanation of SF24 Sat deficiency.
Hope for good race pace (second force) and I think that second position is reality.
I am waiting for more after Imola.
A pity the potential was not fully extracted when it mattered. After Bahrain it seems like also today it should (or could) have been a Ferrari on pole. The way this car turned into corners was nothing short of amazing.
Anyway, the big difference to last year is that this year the SF-24 has excellent deg, even better than RB20’s. I hope RedBull to encounter some tyre problems at some point in the race tomorrow and Ferrari to capitalize on it.
CL complained on understeering and according to Werner Ferrari puted to many clicks on front wing flaps i.e. to much aero load so he lost the balance, they did not find appropriate front aero load on CL car.
CL complained on understeering and according to Werner Ferrari puted to many clicks on front wing flaps i.e. to much aero load so he lost the balance, they did not find appropriate front aero load on CL car.
The other thing, which Mark Hughes points out, is that the Ferrari is a car that finds its sweet spot sooner. This will help on sprint weekends - arguably the change to allow set up changes between sprint and GP negates that a bit but I still think that’s the right thing for the sport (if only sprint qualifying was a bit more different - eg one shot quali - then I think they’d have all but cracked it).
But still, this is another sign that the car is on the right track and generally complaint. The fact that the race pace and quali gaps are more similar is also encouraging imho - it paints a realistic picture of what’s now needed (ie more outright performance) which again can only be a good thing.
I bet what will happen is that 2025 will be a great season - a bit like 2021 - and then we’ll pivot to the next big pointless rules change.
CL complained on understeering and according to Werner Ferrari puted to many clicks on front wing flaps i.e. to much aero load so he lost the balance, they did not find appropriate front aero load on CL car.
CL complained on understeering and according to Werner Ferrari puted to many clicks on front wing flaps i.e. to much aero load so he lost the balance, they did not find appropriate front aero load on CL car.
I think LEC requested the "5 clicks"
Maybe, I do not know, however they probably missed on that and the car lost its balance.
CL complained on understeering and according to Werner Ferrari puted to many clicks on front wing flaps i.e. to much aero load so he lost the balance, they did not find appropriate front aero load on CL car.
I think LEC requested the "5 clicks"
Maybe, I do not know, however they probably missed on that and the car lost its balance.
Plenty of time to fix it back for the race since front wing clicks are one of the accepted changes in parc ferme
. Now we look like fools.
