2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[f1316]

Montoya suggested in the coverage that Russell’s “lift” may also have gained him some charge, so whatever he lost in the corner he gained back in electrical energy - this could explain that specific difference but doesn’t mean it’s not also true that the Mercedes still has a significant engine advantage.

Montoya is not an engineer. I don't expect him to know about 'electrical impedance losses' , 'rubber hysterisis' or 'entropy' (for Pete's sake) , but didn't expect him to not know about energy conversion efficiency. There is no way to 'more than compensate' the time loss due to lifting by time gain via extra deployment. It's better commentators who have no technical knowledge keep to the driving aspects and not go for 'extra smart points' by guess-broadcasting their idea of science/engg.

Maybe the specifics are wrong, but the idea is correct that George would have gotten some charge back to deploy. It's not worth the time he lost, sure, but reduces the loss.

Who said ‘more than compensate’? Who are you quoting?

It’s clearly not faster to lift there or they’d do it every time, but if Leclerc loses .150 on that straight, how much more was the lift worth? Half a tenth to a tenth, probably no more.

Not sure why you think that’s so wrong (or what rubber hysteresis has to do with this).

[f1316]

I certainly don’t want to enter the annoying “my favourite driver” yin-yang that’s become an unfortunate part of this thread. What I will say is that, from a team point of view, both drivers did what you would want from them:

(1) Leclerc bounced back, no mistakes, and his pace was good. I don’t think it’s been a super smooth weekend - and missing FP1 probably didn’t help - nor do I think that was a signature barnstorming lap. But, as he said, we didn’t want him to take too many risks, he just needed a clean, solid session and that’s what he did. Given the bit of luck that impacted Kimi (and Max) potentially being ahead, it gives him a great opportunity for the race
(2) Hamilton continues to be solid and executing well. He made a mistake on the first run but then still did a good second lap and seems to have overcome his qualifying struggles from the previous rules era. He’s not going to be the same driver as 10 years ago but that has pros and cons - a tenth or two of one lap pace maybe lost but a level of experience that allows him to maximise races gained.

The even bigger thing will be if and how they combine tomorrow to take it to Mercedes tomorrow. That doesn’t mean explicitly working together but it does mean not costing each other time and may mean accepting (in advance) the possibility of splitting the strategy to give Ferrari as a team the best shot of putting Mercedes under pressure.

[PlatinumZealot]

“We closed the gap overnight three tenths, but we still are three tenths down today, or two-and-a-bit tenths down today, so it’s going to be very tough to challenge them tomorrow, but with a long run down to Turn 3, hopefully together we can.

“It’s great having Charles here as well, because we can hopefully work together in a strategy and try to apply pressure to them.”

Hmmm. Testing the team order waters already?!

[venkyhere]

“We closed the gap overnight three tenths, but we still are three tenths down today, or two-and-a-bit tenths down today, so it’s going to be very tough to challenge them tomorrow, but with a long run down to Turn 3, hopefully together we can.

“It’s great having Charles here as well, because we can hopefully work together in a strategy and try to apply pressure to them.”

Hmmm. Testing the team order waters already?!

Hamilton already behaving like lead driver and relegating Charles to '2nd driver' - all his interviews are like this.
Not complaining, just an observation.

[SharkY]

It’s clearly not faster to lift there or they’d do it every time, but if Leclerc loses .150 on that straight, how much more was the lift worth? Half a tenth to a tenth, probably no more.

Looking at the telemetry, Russel's run from T10 to the finish line was actually slower on the pole lap, than the lap before. But he actually used a bit more juice on the run to the T4, so it's hard to judge, how much of an impact it was.

Interestingly McLaren's had a similar speed profile from T10 to Ferrari, so it seems that the advantage has more to do with a Mercedes' superior energy management.

What is worrying is that on the T3-T4 straight, Ferraris run out of juice much quicker than Mercedes powered cars, so they may be sitting ducks in the race, assuming they overtake Russel on Lap 1 as per usual. Hopefully both Lewis and Charles may outbrake George into the T4.

[Donuts]

“We closed the gap overnight three tenths, but we still are three tenths down today, or two-and-a-bit tenths down today, so it’s going to be very tough to challenge them tomorrow, but with a long run down to Turn 3, hopefully together we can.

“It’s great having Charles here as well, because we can hopefully work together in a strategy and try to apply pressure to them.”

Hmmm. Testing the team order waters already?!

Hamilton already behaving like lead driver and relegating Charles to '2nd driver' - all his interviews are like this.
Not complaining, just an observation.

Utter nonsense! How do you even draw that conclusion (is not a question)!

[erudite450]

Ferrari has definitely clawed back some advantage compared to earlier in the season. If both drivers are somehow ahead of Russell at the end of lap 1, I believe there is enough in the car to win the grand prix with a good strategy.

[F1NAC]

Such a shame they messed up the fuel on Hamiltons first run.

But great result for the team!

Hamilton messed up the lap on his first run.

Yeah. But it was only T3 and he could have set a banker lap after if fueled correctly. He came on the radio to ask why as that was the plan.

With a banker he could have taken some more risks in the final run.

No. Team fueled him as they should. You are not fueled to go with 2 push laps in Q3.

He messed up and that’s why there wasn’t a banker lap

[Sidiamal]

“We closed the gap overnight three tenths, but we still are three tenths down today, or two-and-a-bit tenths down today, so it’s going to be very tough to challenge them tomorrow, but with a long run down to Turn 3, hopefully together we can.

“It’s great having Charles here as well, because we can hopefully work together in a strategy and try to apply pressure to them.”

Hmmm. Testing the team order waters already?!

I don't think so, no. If there are TOs they'll probably go against LH rather than for like last race. In the interest of the team, they'll probably put Leclerc on a 3-stop to repeat Barcelona's masterstroke, Hamilton on a 2-stop to hem in the Mercs. The opposite would require some acrobatics to get it to work.

If Leclerc can overtake Russell off the start and give slipstream to Hamilton they can secure a Ferrari 1-2 by the time they power out of Turn 4. Hamilton will hold up Russell while Leclerc builds a gap in clean air. If not, and we end the first lap with Russell-Leclerc-Hamilton, Charles is free to aggressively undercut Russell while Hamilton holds him back from responding since it risks exposing them to him on a 2-stop. If they do respond, whenever Leclerc comes round, Hamilton can let him through but Russell has to go through Hamilton which is much harder around here than in Barcelona.

There is no "my driver vs your driver" conspiracy theories here. The Scuderia is racing for a team victory, it's just objectively a big advantage that Ferrari have 2 cars vs 1 here.

[Fakepivot]

unreasonable to expect Ferrari win here, my realistic expectation is 3 and 4, i think merc are simply to quick here and race pace is still a question mark, also i think it will be 2 stop since tyre ware was not that bad as Spain as we saw few put in faster lap time on used soft etc, if anything i feel ferrari will be under threat from maxbull and mclaren

edit :- i mean look at this


its soo crazy how merc pull away towards the end of any straight

[atanatizante]

I said he is "slowish" on RB Ring but not in a mocking way. He just never really displayed amazing speed there while in Silverstone(new layout) he had very impressive pace against most of his team mates.

There is only one corner here where prioritizing entry (via super late braking) instead of exit, is rewarding. That's T4. For the other heavy braking and 90 degree turning zones - T1, T3 - prioritizing exit is more important than entry (due to the uphill entry into the corner, a chunk of advantage that a gifted late braker enjoys over other normal drivers, is taken away).
Hamilton is by default an entry-prioritizing driver, in any car, any circuit. That's why over the years, whatever car it is, he has not been 'better than others' in this circuit. If at all he has done well here, it's because of a huge car advantage.

I beg to disagree. Here is the reason he is a late braker instead:

[PlatinumZealot]

I said he is "slowish" on RB Ring but not in a mocking way. He just never really displayed amazing speed there while in Silverstone(new layout) he had very impressive pace against most of his team mates.

There is only one corner here where prioritizing entry (via super late braking) instead of exit, is rewarding. That's T4. For the other heavy braking and 90 degree turning zones - T1, T3 - prioritizing exit is more important than entry (due to the uphill entry into the corner, a chunk of advantage that a gifted late braker enjoys over other normal drivers, is taken away).
Hamilton is by default an entry-prioritizing driver, in any car, any circuit. That's why over the years, whatever car it is, he has not been 'better than others' in this circuit. If at all he has done well here, it's because of a huge car advantage.

I beg to disagree. Here is the reason he is a late braker instead:

The video is totally moot because the ground effect cars forced drivers to alter their styles. Was expecting the presenter to use the pre-ground effect cars.

[venkyhere]

I said he is "slowish" on RB Ring but not in a mocking way. He just never really displayed amazing speed there while in Silverstone(new layout) he had very impressive pace against most of his team mates.

There is only one corner here where prioritizing entry (via super late braking) instead of exit, is rewarding. That's T4. For the other heavy braking and 90 degree turning zones - T1, T3 - prioritizing exit is more important than entry (due to the uphill entry into the corner, a chunk of advantage that a gifted late braker enjoys over other normal drivers, is taken away).
Hamilton is by default an entry-prioritizing driver, in any car, any circuit. That's why over the years, whatever car it is, he has not been 'better than others' in this circuit. If at all he has done well here, it's because of a huge car advantage.

I beg to disagree. Here is the reason he is a late braker instead:

I don't understand what you are disagreeing with. Both the guy in the video and myself are stating the same point - Hamilton prioritizes entry and is a late-braker by default. I never said anything about 'why' that is the case, but the guy in the video says it's because that's how his father trained him in his formative years. Fair enough.
But not following why you 'beg to disagree'. With what ?

[SchuMassa]

Leclerc doing Leclerc things. Very poor...

[f1Follower]

Leclerc doing Leclerc things. Very poor...

It seems he is good with no pressure in Qualifying (its different kind of pressure) but he is very poor when someone is on his tail. I think Ferrari should also look at Verstappen in case Hamilton plans to retire as he is better in race and in qualy