What was the reason for Red Bull’s imaginary big difference from Ferrari to Imola?

Max Ferstappen’s sentence “We just did a better job as a team today” after his win at the Emilia Romagna GP, 4th this year in Formula 1, but hides the essence of what made the Dutchman and the RBR so competitive again after the Melbourne collapse at Imola.

However, his absolute dominance over the three days did not come from RBR’s ‘good work’. It came from the exact opposite performance of Charles Leclerc, who for the first time that year didn’t do such a good job: he made it in the 53 as in the sprint race while

Ferrari F1-75 vs Red Bull RB18

The Red Bull RB18 didn’t get faster than Ferrari in two weeks. A series of upgrades, mostly on the ground, that he brought to Imola was the first step in a weight reduction of around 4kg – a major concern for the Milton Keynes team since earlier in the year when Adrian Newey made significant changes to deal with the phenomenon to cope with the porpoise at high speeds.

“Basically, [ο Λεκλέρ] he walked away from me yesterday [στον αγώνα Sprint]. We brought some upgrades but I don’t know how much they improved us“, said Ferstappen. And then he described exactly what brought him the victory in Imola: “We’ve done everything better than Australia and sometimes that’s more important than car upgrades. I think we just did a better job as a team today“.

In short, Red Bull Racing and Ferstappen achieved at Imola what they failed to achieve in Australia. Right from the start over the three days they managed to find the right balance settings for the RB18, which Ferstappen didn’t have in Melbourne, and most importantly they managed to achieve the rapid warm-up of any surface type and consistent staying in thermals “Window” of tire operation.

In Australia, the champion and his team seemed to be losing in this area and that’s why they lost by state. Just as the Melbourne GP did not reflect a chaotic speed differential between the Ferrari F1-75 and the Red Bull RB18, yesterday’s Imola did not reflect the opposite.

This, the full understanding of the car and the perfect management of the tire temperature, has been Ferrari’s top priority from the first minute of winter testing until today. The Scuderia hasn’t brought any notable upgrades to F1-75 so far and is justified by Leclerc’s own lead.

Three bad days for Leclerc

Why did he lose to Imola? It wasn’t that it lacked speed compared to the RB18. Leclerc lost pole position on Friday from Ferstappen due to a momentary wheel lockup. After all, said the Dutchman, Ferrari drove away from him in the sprint race until the third lap before the end. What was missing was the correct handling of the tyres, both the soft rubber in the sprint and the intermittent rain in the first 20 laps of the race.

In the sprint race, riders had to complete 21 laps with the soft eraser – and on a slightly marginal setting from the start. As Leclerc passed Ferstappen at the start and took the lead, he pushed to get out of the Dutchman’s DRS zone and open a relative safety dispute. And indeed he increased it to 1.7 seconds.

But in this way, Monegasque pushed (especially in the beginning when the fuel load was heavier) and thereby further eroded the soft rubber – which was already clearly wearing down towards the end. Why shouldn’t Ferstappen wear out right away?

“The difference, I think, is that you don’t push yourself to the limit in traffic jams” explains Adrian Siddle from McLaren. ““Your goal is to be in the right spot at the overtaking points so you don’t have a reason to push for the rest of the lap.”

An important role is played by the fact that in this year’s cars the air flowing in from the front is no longer so “dirty”, i.e. turbulent, and the following driver is no longer dependent on mechanical traction as much as last year, the tire wears out .

When Leclerc pushed Sprint to open a safety dispute, Ferstappen could afford the relative protection of his tires. And when the rubber in the front right corner of the Ferrari F1-75 finally started to deliver the spirit, the Dutchman had much better traction on the penultimate lap of the sprint to charge and overtake Leclerc.

Before the Sunday mistake

Something similar happened at the main GP on Sunday, the first 20 laps where everyone competed with the intermediate class rain eraser. In the rain there was no DRS so after his disastrous start that knocked him from 2nd to 4th, Leclerc had to put a lot of pressure on his tires to first pass Lando Norris and then catch Sergio Perez in second place .

So by the time it went to the targets, with the middle eraser for everyone, Leclerc had already lost all contact with Ferstappen and Perez also held a significant difference. But Ferrari was confident the F1-75 had the speed to attempt the undercut with the second pit stop of ‘Plan B’.

An extra lap of the fresh soft eraser allowed Leclerc to get his tires up to the right temperature to attack Perez just as the Mexican came out of his own pit stop (in response to Scuderia’s movement). However, everything went wrong with what Leclerc described as “my first big mistake” of the year, his fourth in the Alta variant.

Monegasque advanced a little further on the domestic curve to stay close to Perez given the DRS zone – the DRS capture point follows immediately. It was no coincidence that the Tet-a-ke took place there. On all three days, the big advantage of F1-75 over RB18 was the chicane of the Alta variant.

Leclerc was lucky the F1-75 suspension didn’t break on contact with the barrier and he had enough difference to return to the track in 9th after the third pit stop to change the muzzle and tires. He no longer had the stress of protecting fresh soft tires and managed to salvage at least three of his lost seats by the checkered flag.

From what Scuderia manager Matthias Binotto said at the end, Ferrari didn’t fail to check the tires in Sunday’s race. He didn’t have the problem carrying the front tires he had in Saturday’s sprint. “I think that was true in combat Sprint, but not today. It was just a matter of position on the track we were on‘ the Italian stressed, confirming that Leclerc’s fight was basically ruined by his very bad start.

It’s not just carefree being a Ferrari driver, pulling the Scuderia championship car for the first time in 15 years and racing in Italy. It’s absurd that Charles Leclerc shouldn’t make mistakes in his first year in the championship.

Max Ferstappen has more experience than that kind of pressure and Leclerc’s mistakes don’t detract from his perfect driving experience across all three days at Imola. He was unmistakable in Friday night’s qualifying rain, soft tire management in the sprint race, wet and unpredictable conditions with the intermediate wet tire for the first 20 laps of the race and with the slicks taking slower cars out of the dry line through to the checkered flag.

The Dutchman said that the border struggle between Ferrari and Red Bull throughout the season will be measured by the success of each team’s work on different tracks, weather conditions and erasers. And until Spain, in mid-May, will complete the “diet” of about 10 kilos of RB18, it offers about 3 tenths in the round. It’s probably time for the first major Ferrari F1-75 upgrades.