2024 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[CouncilorIrissa]

We will have the answer soon enough. Leclerc looked rapid in FP, let's hope he gets to use that pace.

RB have overhauled their setup since then and made large gains, whereas Ferrari went backwards. The FP data is worth nada at this point.

RB ran a race simulation in FP3 with their new wing and Max was not faster than what Leclerc did the day before, in fact he had quite significant deg already after 5 laps.

Not sure if it's due to tyre deg. His slower laps at the end of the stint (23.1 and 24.0) also show lower speedtraps. Probably due to RB switching off the sixth cylinder or something

And the laps prior to these two are straight up faster than what LEC did in FP2.

It's all smoke and mirrors by RB in FP.

[Chuckjr]

It's Elkann putting his money in some DEI investment fund. Wouldn't expect great returns from that , but it's not being paid to Ham.

Wow. Total clown show. Making a mockery of Ferrari. Enzo would turn over in his grave seeing Elkann whore Ferrari like this. Shameful but expected from a guy who clearly doesn’t understand or appreciate Ferrari. It’s why he’s selling them out like this. (I suggest looking into that guys life and history. It’s something else).

[Cs98]

Leclerc looked rapid in quali trim as well during FP2, and he was awful today in FP3 and quali so yeah...

He topped FP3... And Sainz demonstrated what the car was capable of in quali. Fastest in S1 and S3, without the mistake possibly on pole.

He said he was struggling massively in FP3 already compared to yesterday.

Well, he still topped the session. Verstappen also seemed to be struggling well into quali, but then suddenly he finds something and gets the laps in. Leclerc not finding that something during quali doesn't mean the car is suddenly going to lose the race pace he showed yesterday.

[dia6olo]

Max is not invincible. He has had a big car advantage for a very long time which makes people forget before summer 2022. Charles and Carlos need to find a way to work together to take him down.

He's as close to being invincible as it gets though. Last time he did a mistake was when he spun in Hungary 2022, that's almost 40 races ago.

It seems his 99% is better than everyone else's 100%.

Without taking anything away from Max, I think having had a car for the past 40 races or so that has had a significant advantage over the others is the big contributing factor, not the driver.
It's not difficult to avoid mistakes when you have a car that doesn't need to be driven on the edge but still easily wins.

[CouncilorIrissa]

He topped FP3... And Sainz demonstrated what the car was capable of in quali. Fastest in S1 and S3, without the mistake possibly on pole.

He said he was struggling massively in FP3 already compared to yesterday.

Well, he still topped the session. Verstappen also seemed to be struggling well into quali, but then suddenly he finds something and gets the laps in. Leclerc not finding that something during quali doesn't mean the car is suddenly going to lose the race pace he showed yesterday.

I think most drivers complain on the radio one way or another, it's just FOM drumming up non-existent drama by broadcasting complaints from the championship leader. With Hamilton was dominating, they would always have us listen to him complain about tyres being gone, now it's constant bad upshifts and balance complaints from Max.

[Cs98]

RB have overhauled their setup since then and made large gains, whereas Ferrari went backwards. The FP data is worth nada at this point.

RB ran a race simulation in FP3 with their new wing and Max was not faster than what Leclerc did the day before, in fact he had quite significant deg already after 5 laps.

Not sure if it's due to tyre deg. His slower laps at the end of the stint (23.1 and 24.0) also show lower speedtraps. Probably due to RB switching off the sixth cylinder or something

And the laps prior to these two are straight up faster than what LEC did in FP2.

It's all smoke and mirrors by RB in FP.

Well having seen the stint on the onboard and listened to the team radio I can confirm it was deg.

"All smoke and mirrors". You are just inventing nonsense now, not everything has to fit your narrative. Max wasn't faking chronic understeer in those final laps. Or maybe the RB mind tricksters are out to get you Councilor.

[TNTHead]

Max is not invincible. He has had a big car advantage for a very long time which makes people forget before summer 2022. Charles and Carlos need to find a way to work together to take him down.

He's as close to being invincible as it gets though. Last time he did a mistake was when he spun in Hungary 2022, that's almost 40 races ago.

It seems his 99% is better than everyone else's 100%.

Without taking anything away from Max, I think having had a car for the past 40 races or so that has had a significant advantage over the others is the big contributing factor, not the driver.
It's not difficult to avoid mistakes when you have a car that doesn't need to be driven on the edge but still easily wins.

Well, I think you can evaluate a large part of the Max factor by comparing the average qualy and race pace difference with his team mate. Perez is no cookie (and most probably not at LEC/SAI level) but always on the backfoot compared to Max.

[Sphere3758]

Max is not invincible. He has had a big car advantage for a very long time which makes people forget before summer 2022. Charles and Carlos need to find a way to work together to take him down.

He's as close to being invincible as it gets though. Last time he did a mistake was when he spun in Hungary 2022, that's almost 40 races ago.

It seems his 99% is better than everyone else's 100%.

Without taking anything away from Max, I think having had a car for the past 40 races or so that has had a significant advantage over the others is the big contributing factor, not the driver.
It's not difficult to avoid mistakes when you have a car that doesn't need to be driven on the edge but still easily wins.

Agreed. Even for quali, just revisit his performance in the first half of 2022 before Ferrari got terrible. There are quite a few errors he did there or failed to go faster in Q3. He got just one pole in the first 8 races and even Sergio beat him to one of them.

Everyone crumbles when the pressure is on. Some more than others, but no one is close to invincible

[dia6olo]

He's as close to being invincible as it gets though. Last time he did a mistake was when he spun in Hungary 2022, that's almost 40 races ago.

It seems his 99% is better than everyone else's 100%.

Without taking anything away from Max, I think having had a car for the past 40 races or so that has had a significant advantage over the others is the big contributing factor, not the driver.
It's not difficult to avoid mistakes when you have a car that doesn't need to be driven on the edge but still easily wins.

Well, I think you can evaluate a large part of the Max factor by comparing the average qualy and race pace difference with his team mate. Perez is no cookie (and most probably not at LEC/SAI level) but always on the backfoot compared to Max.

I think that measure/comparison often paints a misleading picture, some teams have a clear number 2 driver, Red Bull do and Perez is a number 2, he is treated as such and is frequently thrown under the bus by his team.
Secondly many drivers have different driving characteristics and car characteristic preferences, the same car is often not the same car for both drivers. I think it is clear that at Red Bull the car is fully developed to Max's preference and if it happens to hurt Perez in the process they don't care.
It's not as simple as it sometimes looks.

[catent]

Really, the biggest source of frustration for me is Leclerc not being clear of Norris. Rough sessions will happen from time-to-time, sometimes a driver will have a bad outing, etc. It happens. If Leclerc can clear Norris early, yesterday’s struggles become moot.

Also worth discussion: did Pirelli’s tire pressure change fundamentally break something about the SF-24’s setup/balance this weekend, that will not be able to be resolved by the start of the race? Will it impact tire deg? Tire prep? Race pace? In other words, is this a minor thing, easily worked around, largely unrelated to yesterday’s qualifying struggles, and/or unlikely to impact race pace? Or will this be a bigger issue that could legitimately affect performance over the race? It would be a bit amusing (and quite frustrating!) if they found a step forward with their rear suspension changes this week, only for those changes to be rendered less relevant by Pirelli’s minimum pressure change. I have no reason to believe this is true, just speculating / thinking out loud.

Barring a major and obvious safety issue, these type of mid-weekend changes (such as minimum tire pressure) should not occur.

[CouncilorIrissa]

He needs to clear Norris at the start, otherwise he’ll be stuck behind him until tyre deg kicks in.

That is, if the SF24 is any quicker than MCL in the first place.

[Vanja #66]

Simone Berra from Pirelli again giving some insight for Italian media.

https://www-formulapassion-it.translate ... r_pto=wapp

“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.

[dialtone]

So much noise…

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.

[dialtone]

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.

[Xyz22]

So much noise…

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.