organic wrote: ↑24 Jun 2024, 20:14
Sphere3758 wrote: ↑24 Jun 2024, 20:11
organic wrote: ↑24 Jun 2024, 18:54
Something everyone seems to be ignoring is that Leclerc did his medium stint later in the race than Verstappen. So every lap was done at a lower fuel load - 7 laps fuel difference going by the strategy graphic at the bottom
Still shows very good pace, but I think it's exaggerated
Fuel corrected version
https://x.com/umakshually/status/1805237968858120204
So fuel corrected it puts Leclerc equal to Verstappen on mediums but 2 tenths behind in final soft stint & half a second in first stint (though heavily traffic affected).
So the gap's probably less than 2 tenths per lap to RB at Barcelona which should be weak for Ferrari and strong for RB
This is what i said earlier today more or less
Also, Verstappen had new soft tyres in the final stint, which in this track is an advantage. Ferrari also made a bad strategy move by using the new tyres at the start. They didn't gain anything considering they were stuck behind MB.
The problem is that Ferrari doesn't have performance in quali.
The massive outlier is McL who has the fastest car by a significant margin.
AR3-GP wrote: ↑24 Jun 2024, 18:02
Xyz22 wrote: ↑24 Jun 2024, 17:57
AR3-GP wrote: ↑24 Jun 2024, 17:09
Leclerc is worth 1 tenth minimum in qualifying on any day and on any track when he does a good job. There isn’t more to say. Stop the excuses.
There is no need to be aggressive.
I'd like to add that Leclerc is usually quite honest when he doesn't do a good lap in quali. Back in 2021 when he was in pole in Baku, he literally said his lap was not good.
This time he said that there wasn't "more" to extract from the car. Of course with a perfect lap he would have been P3, but we are talking very very small margins. To me, it is clear that both him and Carlos were able to get close to the limit. As a matter of fact, Carlos has quite the record in Spain in terms of qualifying, considering that before matching with Charles he always finished ahead of his teammate outside 2019 with Lando.
How Carlos performed vs other drivers in Spain is not so useful to me because none of the others are Leclerc. In 2021 and 2022, there were considerable gaps in Spain in Leclerc's favor. 2023 is not considered because not getting out of Q1 is an outlier result. iirc, the car was steering to one direction last year.
The topic is only a small point (although it does not look to have been taken that way). He could have qualified P3. It would have changed his weekend. It would have changed the perspectives about Ferrari's performance.
I think it was there for someone like him. That's all.
With a perfect lap he would have been P3, yes. The issue is that with the SF 24 neither him nor Sainz delivered a perfect lap yet, maybe Monaco.
There is clearly a limitation in the available grip, and maybe it's "easy" to find that limit.
The F1 75 was a car with tremendous raw performance that only Leclerc was able to extract consistently, especially in race pace. The SF 24 is a completely different car.
I highlighted past Sainz results because it is still an indication that Spain is a strong for him, which raises the likelihood of him being able to deliver strong laps in Q.