Where Leclerc’s pole position was judged and where racing in Australia is judged

The general sentiment ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, this year’s Formula 1 round 3 at Melbourne’s Albert Park, shared by Ferrari, was that the Red Bull RB18 would be the fastest car over the three days.

This assessment seemed to be confirmed in the first two periods (Q1 and Q2) of the ranking tests: Sergio Perez and Max Ferstappen were alternately faster than Ferrari, despite the plan of Milton Keynes’ team to reduce the weight of the RB18 – this year’s “Achilles” – to drastically reduce heel” and the result of efforts to cope with the jumps on the straight (porpoise) – will be applied in the next race from Imola.

But after the end of Q2 it wasn’t what it seemed: Ferrari still had plenty of speed to surface and did so with the two fastest laps in both Q3 attempts – before and after Fernando Alonso’s accident to be precise in the middle of the procedure.

The Ferrari F1-75 had strong porpoises on the straights, worse than in Bahrain and Jeddah, but this had absolutely no negative impact on the car’s speed. “It’s not so much about our time as it is about our comfort”confirmed Leclerc. “But I’m not here to drive a comfortable car, I’m here to drive a fast one”he added.

On the contrary, since yesterday, Ferstappen has been having problems with the stability of the RB18 in the fast parts of the track (which is more the case with this year’s Albert Park redesign), and especially in its first part. “Things weren’t good”, said Ferstappen at the end of qualifying. “I didn’t feel so comfortable with the car these two days.

I don’t think there was even one lap where I felt comfortable in the car. We’ll try to analyze it. So far everything is a bit scattered. I’m happy with second place, but as a team we want more‘ concluded the champion.

From what was seen yesterday and confirmed today, Ferrari is faster in slow corners and on exit acceleration, while the RB18 has a higher top speed. This means he can again use the lower wing of the lower lift to make up any deficit against the Ferrari F1-75. That’s what he did in Jeddah.

What applies to the Australian race

However, things could get a little more unpredictable at the Melbourne GP from 8am. (Greek time zone). A key parameter they can change is that the soft rubber is unlikely to be used, except for an unexpected strategic hazard – as Pirelli Australia brought the softest of them all (C5), while the medium is C3 and the hard is C2.

The soft C5 takes two laps to get into its thermal operating window, so it’s only used when a driver wants to take a risk or has nothing to lose towards the end of the race. However, the most likely strategy is to start with the medium eraser and place the hard in a single pit stop.

Dealing with the center tire and protecting the front tires from wear will perhaps be the most important aspect of the race. And Red Bull showed in Friday’s free practice that they do it more efficiently than their speed in a soft rubber loop.

In Yesterday’s Free Trials “we were a bit behind Ferrari [στην ταχύτητα σε έναν γύρο] but in the round rows everything was more stable and beautiful. We’ve made some good improvements”said Ferstappen. And RBR director Christian Horner confirmed it: “We started a little from the ‘window’ [απόδοσης]but now we were getting in and the car was starting to be more responsive“.

The RB18 was about a tenth faster than Ferrari on the middle lap rows – although we always have to calculate the (unknown) differences in fuel loads. The similar performance of the two cars points to another ambiguous battle, such as at Shakir and Jeddah, which will be judged in Melbourne’s pit and DRS zones.