Ferrari put together a poor F1 weekend. Another, albeit in a different way, after the disastrous one experienced and suffered on Canadian soil. Beyond the certainly unexpected performances, as the prancing Horse he thought he could fight for the victory, but there is also the issue of drivers. There’s certainly no need to start a controversy. Nonetheless, it is clear how Sainz did not “obey” team orders and in fact was a surprise Leclerc. It remains difficult to understand whether this scenario compromised the Monegasque’s race. Better to end it here.
For the rest let’s talk about Red Bull. A car, the RB20, which he is no longer capable of dominating. He thinks about it Verstappen However, given that the talent of Hasselt he is capable of dragging the Austrian team to yet another triumph. He does it by beating a Lando Norris super competitive that does not exploit its potential MCL38. We are talking about a car F1 really strong but for various reasons it is not reaping the fruits of the excellent work carried out in the factory. We get to Mercedes on a strong rise, able to take advantage of the redhead’s subdued weekend to beat her.
Red Bull excellent with fuel load, Ferrari slower to manage temperatures
With the help of telemetry data we can analyze the average speed in the first stint of the race, in the sections of track indicated on the graph. At the start all the top riders mounted the softest compound to have a grip improve. Gum Soft helps to better manage the rise in temperatures caused by lateral slipping, giving the possibility to push while limiting degradation. In the sections of curves 4 and 5 the two Red Bull they show themselves as the best, although the track position of car number 11 significantly disadvantaged the Mexican.
Verstappen takes advantage of a perfect car in support and capable of keeping the compounds in the correct window, taking advantage of the load guaranteed by the floor and rear wing. This allowed him to make a difference on Norris. Max it is the strongest in the section between turns 10 and 12 where, on the contrary, the Ferrari confirms the difficulties encountered throughout weekend. The acceleration of SF-24 in this section it was not optimal. The drivers had to manage the rear axle of their car differently. A similar thing also happened in turns 4 and 5, where the engineers repeatedly asked the drivers for “easy traction” to conserve the tires.
In the final section of the race, with cars running lower on fuel, we observe different values compared to the first part of the race. McLaren brings more speed into corners by taking advantage of the car running out of petrol. Plates he is generally faster than his teammate, although he was relegated to seventh place behind them Ferrari. Contrary to what was seen previously, Norris has a gap lower speed than Verstappen. This difference in favor of the Englishman allowed him to get closer to the world champion, stopping his race, as in Canadajust over two seconds away from the finish line.
Mercedes it proves to be good in turn 4. The large radius bend that opens up the central sector requires stiffness in the front end capable of facilitating acceleration at a steering angle, limiting understeer. The aero-mechanical compromise found by men Mercedes, it allowed the German team’s standard bearers to increase speed in the center of the corner and accelerate more easily.
Ferrari it is slower than its direct opponents, paying throughout the cornering phase. Even with the car running out of fuel, the Ferrari drivers had to be more conservative so as not to take the tires outside the ideal usage window and generate degradation. The choice of the Italian team made at the beginning weekend may have been disadvantaged in this sense. The reds took to the track with a more streamlined aerodynamic set-up than their opponents. This certainly affected cornering performance, where Sainz and Leclerc are more conservative.
DRS analysis: Mercedes and Ferrari optimize top speed, McLaren and Red Bull favor cornering
Ultimately, let’s look at the top speed at the end of the main straight throughout the entire race. Following what has just been said, the excellent top speeds of the pilots are not surprising Ferrari, both with open and closed wings. Values similar to the red riders also for Hamilton. Lewis he opted for a slightly different hybrid strategy than his teammate which allowed him to reach the end of the straight with a handful of km/h more than him. Furthermore, a slightly more relaxed set-up for the seven-time world champion cannot be ruled out.
Lower top speeds for Red Bull And McLaren, the result of a more powerful set up capable of maximizing performance in curves. There downforce Major awarded these two teams. The ability to push harder when changing direction on the circuit made a difference in the overall pace of the race. In the first stint Norris was unable to overcome Russell precisely because of the lower top speeds. When he had a clear path, however, the winner of Miami significantly improved his pace, making the difference precisely in the cornering phases.
Author and graphic designers: Leonardo Pasqual – @PasqualLeonardo
