dani5549 wrote: ↑10 Sep 2024, 13:26
That is no longer the case though, Leclerc was pretty bad in Turn 1-2 at Monza because of the understeer.
And Sainz was purple in sector 1 in quali, if I'm not mistaken. Leclerc being slow in 1-2 was a setup choice from Ferrari/Leclerc that led to much better car balance and tyre wear in the race for Leclerc, at the cost of understeer in quali. The balance was good on high fuel and became more understeery as fuel burned off, which helped reduce front left sliding and meant Leclerc was able to go so incredibly long on his hards, while McLaren had to pit again and Sainz suffered comparatively more deg despite running a shorter hard stint.
That compromise to go for such low front wing loading was made because aero efficiency and front left preservation is so important in Monza. In Baku they can mount a higher downforce front wing, because aero efficiency isn't as important when 2/3 of the lap is slow-medium speed corners and the tyre wear is biased towards the rears due to the stop-start nature of the track. You can afford to beat your fronts to a pulp in Baku, so Ferrari can retain their great acceleration out of slow corners, while also going for a more oversteery balance (at the cost of front tyre wear) so they can get on the throttle earlier.