Ferrari comes close to starting from the post, Red Bull gets it. Max Verstappen conquer the pole in the sprint qualification. The Dutchman had a less than brilliant session, with a general feeling with the car that, according to him, was certainly not perfect. Immediately behind Max there is a super Leclerc, able to familiarize himself with the track in the course of a few minutes, having practically not taken part in the only free practice session in the morning. The Monegasque, like the world champion, was able to activate the tires better than his opponents by taking advantage of the grip provided by the softest rubber. This despite the fact that he made three corrections during the session which actually slowed down his timing.
Disappointment on the part of the two, however McLaren. The large package of updates brought here to Miami works for the English team’s car. A performance step which, however, was only seen with the medium tyre. With the Pirelli band Softin fact, mounted in the SQ3, the riders found it difficult to get the compounds up to temperature, resulting in a consequent lack of grip and performance. Excellent performance also from Ricciardo who seems to have dusted off his qualifying skills on the American track, taking fourth position behind the duo Red Bull and of Charles Leclerc.
GP Miami/Telemetry T1: Ferrari good handling at fast speed. Red Bull takes advantage of the greater load of the fund
The graph relating to the first sector highlights some difficulties on the part of Verstappen in traction, one of the strong points of Red Bull. You can see how Max has a similar attitude to that adopted by Leclerc in the first races. The Dutchman, with softer tyres, is the best in braking from 1 and also holds the top speed higher. Outgoing it is though Charles the best. The Monegasque anticipates the input on the gas and increases speed similarly to Ricciardobenefiting from better traction.
The Ferrari driver gets references top although he makes a double mistake: understeer entering turn 1 and oversteer into the next turn. Two small flaws resulting from the warm-up strategy. Snap which probably caused the team to lose pole Ferrari. At two, where the three pilots split the gas, we observe how the driver of the red has a higher average percentage and raises the accelerator less than his competitors. Max makes the difference again in the scoring area snake fast from turn 4 to turn 8.
The leader of the world championship classification runs through 4 at a higher speed and is much more effective in the short acceleration section before turn 6. Max takes advantage of a single-seater capable of extracting greater down force, especially from the bottom. This gives your car greater stability when changing direction. At number 8 however, the three drivers have a similar attitude to turn 1, with Verstappen which favors entry over Leclerc And Ricciardo which are more capable in traction.
GP Miami/Telemetry T2: Ferrari concentrates its work on taking care of the exit. Red Bull better efficiency
In the central sector Red Bull shows your efficiency. Verstappen not only, as we have just analyzed, does it dominate in the snake fast, but also dominates on the first of the two long straights. There RB20 is equipped with a DRS better which allows the Dutchman to recover the ground lost in traction. The set-up from the SF-24 instead it seems to be mainly focused on obtaining a high degree of traction, useful for best discharging the approximately 1000 HP generated by the power unit 066/12 Italian.
This was de’s first concern team of Maranellogiven that in the previous tracks the red one lost in direct comparison with Red Bull during the acceleration phases. In Fp1 there SF-24 he suffered a lot at 16, a corner that they tried to optimize for qualifying. Objective achieved thanks also to Verstappen who was not fully comfortable with the car. In fact, we can observe how Charlesalthough it does not obtain the best top speeds between 11 and 16, it manages to gain in the exit phases.
Furthermore, the pilot of the principality manages to take full advantage of the serious mistake made by Verstappen which is evident in the change of direction between turns 15 and 16. Max, as can be seen from the minimum speed in turn 15 of 97 km/h, led to a high entry speed trying to cut more of the curb. Move that generated the tedious pendulum effect on the RB20giving rise to harmful oversteer which limited performance.
GP Miami/Telemetry T3: Ferrari makes more use of the hybrid. Red Bull in trouble
Finally, let’s examine the third and final sector of the Stars and Stripes track. Once again we can easily notice the Dutch driver’s various difficulties in the acceleration phases. The reigning world champion is forced to postpone the gas due to excessively hot tires from pushing too hard previously. Appearance that makes him lose different lap time throughout the first part of the straight.
Leclerc on the contrary, perhaps of a strategy on the activation of the compounds Pirelli undoubtedly very different, studied with peculiarities in the simulator, it manages to exploit the compounds more and, together with the push of the hybrid in this section, manages to equalize the speed of Verstappen before reaching turn 17. Coming out of this last bend, the Dutchman from Red Bull he once again postpones the braking and consequently his apex point, leaving ground to the opponent in traction towards the finish line of the track Florida.
Authors and graphic designers: Alessandro Arcari – @berrageiz – Leonardo Pasqual – @PasqualLeonardo
