The last three grand prix contests were won by three different teams: McLaren in Miami, Red Bull in Imola and Ferrari in Monte Carlo. An alternation that was difficult to predict at the start of the championship, when the reigning world champion team seemed destined to kill – sportingly speaking – an F1 season for the second time in a row. Furthermore, the performance report shows the Austrian team falling behind its rivals: in the Monaco GP the RB20 remained far from the podium and, looking at the drivers, Sergio Perez embarked on a new series of dull performances which recalls that of 2023. The calendar includes now the Canadian GPanother event for which the predictions appear very open, made even more uncertain by the new asphalting of the route which will bring new unknowns.
Horner calm: “It was only the Monaco circuit that highlighted our weaknesses”
Despite the problems that have emerged over the last month, at the moment Red Bull’s safety has not been affected. The team principal Chris Horner analyzed the situation in the championship like this: “I think McLaren made a big step forward, while Ferrari’s was very subtle. We’ll see in the next races, we’re getting into the heart of the championship: Canada, Spain, Austria, Great Britain… It’s a marathon, not a sprint“.
Horner believes that the Monte Carlo circuit highlighted the RB20’s weaknesses, but previous results demonstrate the goodness of the car: “We expected Monaco to be a difficult weekend for us. We take nothing for granted, but I think the next tracks will work in the car’s favour. So far we have won five grand prix, two Sprints and achieved second place in Miami. It’s only the Monaco circuit that didn’t allow us to exploit our strengths: we need to understand our weaknesses and address them“.
Among the upcoming races, the next round of Canadian GP could be the most complicated for Red Bull: “It’s a track where we’ve done well before, but they resurfaced the entire circuit againso we’ll see – Horner observed – Ferrari and McLaren are fast and it always happened that a convergence in performance occurred. Historically in Montreal there is a lot of traction, but with new asphalt you never know what the balance will be and who it will slide towardsto”.
The optimism of Ferrari and McLaren after the last weekends: hierarchies closer than ever
Certainly, Red Bull’s two main rival teams feel that now the balance of power is no longer so unbalanced towards the Austrian team. The team principal of Ferrari, Fred Vasseur, after the triumph in Monte Carlo underlined the progress made by the Maranello team in the last 6-7 months. The Frenchman highlighted how the Red team has now become much more opportunistic, not wasting opportunities as has often happened in the recent past. For the next races, Vasseur still expects great balance: “If we look at the latest races, the three top teams are enclosed within a tenth. In Miami we ended up 2 seconds behind Max after 40 laps, in Imola we were 6 seconds after 36 laps. There will be circuits that favor one team over another, but the difference will be a tenth, a tenth and a half“.
Looking in particular at the Canadian GP, the Ferrari wall boss underlines the characteristics of the track which should still guarantee balance between the top teams: “In Montreal it is almost the opposite of Monaco in terms of speed and downforce, but there are also curbs, lots of slow corners, chicanes and so on. Some curves are similar to those of Monte Carlo. Overall, if we look at the performances of Melbourne, Imola and Miami, with different types of compounds, layouts and asphalts, we can think that the race will be very close until the end“.
Great optimism can be felt in the house McLaren, probably the most consistent team in high-level performance since the new update package debuted over the weekend in Miami. After second and fourth place in Monte Carlo, the team principal Andrea Stella He admitted: “We have collected a lot of points, but they are also proof that we can be regular contenders for the podium. We look to the next races with optimism“.
Piastri: “We can fight in every match”
The Italian’s words were confirmed by Oscar Piastri, a great protagonist in the Principality: “There have been three very different circuits in the last three races, and we have been competitive in all of them. Miami was probably one of the worst circuits for us before this year. Imola has always been kind to us and we had a very strong weekend there. Regarding Monte Carlo, let’s say that our car has never been the strongest in the slow corners and instead we were very fast again“. A progress also proudly underlined by Stella after qualifying for the Monaco GP: “It seems that the picture of our competitiveness is finally starting to change: slow speed no longer appears as a clear weakness. A situation that we have been able to change thanks to developments.”
Piastri now expects a competitive McLaren on every type of circuit, predicting a great battle between the top teams: “We can be confident wherever we go. I feel that we don’t have to rely on high-speed circuits like we did last year to get our results, which is a very exciting thing. I think the pecking order is tighter than ever, so I think we can definitely be battling every date“.
Mercedes fourth wheel: “We hope to continue the momentum”
It remains further behind the top three teams Mercedes. For now, the team led by Toto Wolff has to settle for the role of fourth wheel, capable of grabbing a few points when someone in front is having a less than brilliant day. In Monte Carlo this happened against Red Bull, with Max Verstappen stuck sandwiched between the cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Andrew Shovlindirector of track engineers, looking towards the next event in Canada, underlined how already in the Principality there was little to achieve an even better result than Russell’s fifth place: “We hope to build on the momentum we’ve had recently, closing the gap compared to the former. We have yet to get into those teams and it was frustrating how for the second race in a row George was within a thousandth of a second of another qualifying position (Norris’ fourth, ed.). He was just a few hundredths of a second away from placing third on the grid. We want to continue in this direction“.
Ahead of the Canadian GP, Mercedes will continue to introduce some updates to the W15. However, compared to Monte Carlo, the Montreal track features slow curves alternating with long straights where top speed is important. Not ideal for a single-seater that has so far struggled to find the right balance between slow and fast corners: “We will have some minor updates and definitely the new front wing on both cars – added Shovlin – The track has been completely resurfaced, we will see the problems with graining that we had in Munich. The difference is that in Canada you cannot drive slowly, otherwise you will be overtaken. The cornering speeds are like in Monte Carlo, but in Montreal you have big, long straights. You don’t use a wing with maximum downforce, you lower the drag a little to deal with those straights better. We will need to have a decent pace through the corners, hopefully we can continue this momentum and improve on our recent qualifying positions“.
