Ferrari and Mercedes triple the battle for the top spot in Formula 1

The dry plains of Monmelo were boiling at 36 degrees Celsius and the tarmac of Barcelona’s circuit was hot to bend down to look at.

The circuit’s grandstands, a huge stadium with significant elevation changes, were stiflingly packed with 110,000 spectators. Charles Leclerc’s new duel with Max Ferstappen should be just as hot as the tires on the 50-degree hot asphalt and just like the atmosphere in the stands.

But in fact that duel never came about: first Ferstappen’s exit on lap 9, which put him behind George Russell’s Mercedes struggling to overtake the Brit with a problematic DRS, and then – on lap 26 – his exit from Leclerc with a problem with the hybrid powertrain, not only deprived the fight for victory, but also the general conclusions as to whether the upgrade of the Ferrari F1-75 has made it equal again to the Red Bull RB18 in racing conditions.

The upgrade of the Ferrari F1-75

The Scuderia brought the first major upgrade of this year to Barcelona not to make the car faster – because it lacked speed – but to make it more efficient in the lap rows: to solve the bouncing (porpoise) problem and to achieve Better tire management through less wear. Soft and medium rubber wear had cost Leclerc victory at Imola and Miami.

The rear floor redesign upgrade largely solved the rebound problem and made the F1-75 much more efficient. “We know these cars do a lot better the closer they are to the ground because of the efficiency of their diffuser, so bouncing didn’t help.” said Scuderia Managing Director Claudio Albertini.

Together, Ferrari redesigned the rear wing and all the details surrounding the interior of the rear wheels and brake vents, and now Scuderia’s pressing concern was to see in Friday’s free tests whether these changes improved the problematic management of the tires compared to the Red Bull RB18.

They didn’t, and Friday’s results were disappointing for Ferrari: with the average rubber in the lap rows, it was 0.5s slower than the RB18, and moreover it was even slower than the Mercedes W13 in that area.

Friday’s problem was such that Scuderia needed immediate solutions. Back in Maranello, the technicians spent the night in the simulator, on Saturday morning (May 21) in Barcelona the engineers changed some of the F1 75 settings, and then the Scuderia did soft rubber laps again – unusually – in the 3rd free trial period to see the effects of seeing changes.

And all at a track where the balance of the front axle relative to the rear axle is the thinnest of any for the season. Combined with the heat, which almost melted the tires on the hot tarmac, it all seemed like a tricky puzzle – for all teams, but especially for Ferrari. In short, the Italian team tried to solve the problem by loading the front more, that is, putting more lift on the muzzle to get better traction at the front.

Your work performed spectacularly. “Basically, it’s not the same car anymore” Leclerc said after the end of FP3, having rekindled his hopes of winning the next day. “We did a few laps this morning and it was a lot better than yesterday. But it looks like we found something. I don’t know if it’s enough to compete with Max and Ceko. But the feeling was better. and that’s positive.” Continued Monegasque.

But there was a problem. The loading of the muzzle made the rear of the F1-75 very nervous, which was now quite slippery. Leclerc doesn’t generally have a problem with a supercar, but that problem brought his foursome later on his first fast lap in Q3 qualifying.

And this problem also brought Carlos Saint out of the game on Sunday (May 22nd). In fact, the Cavallino front-end changes never suited the Spaniard, who seems to want a car with a slightly sturdier rear end. So Carlos never managed to bring the changes from F1-75 to his dimensions. Hence his bad result in the fight.

But for Leclerc they played perfectly. Monegasque had noticed in FP3 when the soft rubber in the four corners of his own Cavallino held up exceptionally well for 17-18 laps and confirmed this in the race. It was precisely for this reason that he was the only one of the pioneers who managed to save a set of new soft rubbers for the race.

The plan was to place them on the early laps to create a safety margin on Ferstappen after lap 18, coming out of the Dutchman’s threatened underrun when the first pit stop window opens.

The plan worked, helped by Leclerc, who had fresh air ahead of him – and didn’t rub his eraser in the dirty air of a leading car. However, when Ferstappen exited Turn 4 on Lap 9 and got tangled up behind Russell, Leclerc too could afford to control his pace and hit the soft rubber for Lap 21 before jumping in to take the to put waist . He had 8 laps fresher tires than the Dutchman.

Everything went perfectly for Monegasco. But would Ferrari’s tire management be just as good if the engine didn’t deliver the spirit? “To be honest, the laps I drove went very, very well,” said the 24-year-old Ferrari driver later. “I think it will be difficult for them (Red Bull) to catch us again because there was already a significant gap between us and we also had a very good wear rate with the soft rubber. We could do a few more rounds with them. “Well yeah, I think I had the fight under control.” Added Leclerc.

In theory, if any conclusion can be drawn, this tends towards the view that Ferrari, with its big discovery on Saturday morning, found a way to deal with the ‘Achilles’ heel’ of previous races – the excessive wear of the tires relative to the RBR. But it’s an extremely delicate balance, which will no doubt be influenced by the weather conditions of each race, the design of the track and the work of the engineers.

Mercedes enters the battle for the top

The champion declared from the first race of the year that if she managed to untangle the tangle of Mercedes W13 problems, terrible jumps and problematic settings spoiled in her attempt to face the porpoise, also would have an extremely fast car for the start battle for the top.

“We just have to figure out how to unlock it.” said Russell ahead of the Barcelona game. ““We can find endless lap times if we only find the crucial key to get the car in perfect condition.” In Barcelona, ​​the champion failed to find precisely this crucial key, but took a big step to pinpoint it precisely.

At the same time, this progress enabled the team at Brackley to bring the first major upgrades to the W13 in Barcelona (which they tested on a behind-closed-doors shoot day at Paul Ricard’s on Wednesday). The new rear wing and engine upgrades gave it a top speed of around 3-4 km/h, which was crucial to the RB18’s top straight line speed.

More importantly, the grueling work at Brockley seemed to be eclipsing the porpoise problem. “The car felt great. The bumps on the straights are gone. They’re still there in some of the corners but not as bad. We’re a lot closer to the front now.” said Lewis Hamilton at the end of the race, for the first time this year with a relatively optimistic smile.

Mercedes engineers estimate that the W13’s top speed from above is now determined to be around 0.3 seconds, but that’s for one lap. In the lap rows, Mercedes showed themselves to be quicker than Ferrari with the medium tire on Friday, and in the race Hamilton’s pace was brilliant – as he climbed from penultimate position, which fell on the first lap, to 4th just before the checkered flag of the Coolant leak issue that forced him to lose 5th place in the end.

Lewis and the W13 were the fastest combo for much of the race – despite having to do 6 overtimes. He handled his tire well, and Mercedes engineers seem to think that had Lewis stayed where he started, he would have achieved victory with his alternative strategy: start with the middle tire (as opposed to everyone else who had the soft one) and the two pit stops.

But why not Hamilton and not the dazzling, especially in his duel with Ferstappen, George Russell? Lewis was one of the drivers who – like Ferrari – opted to boost the muzzle more to have a more stable front axle on Saturday, even if they paid for it with the sliding rear. After all, Hamilton has always loved the hyperrotational driving style.

This didn’t work as well for the 37-year-old seven-time champion in qualifying as opposed to Russell’s more balanced front-rear settings, but gave him significant advantages in managing (rear) tires in the race. Like Ferrari again. In the race, Lewis was an average of 0.5 seconds faster than Russell.

Unfortunately everything went wrong with the contact with Kevin Magnussen on the first lap and the rupture of a Mercedes tire that the contact entailed. And if it hadn’t been for the coolant issue in the end, the champion probably should have ordered Russell to reserve for Hamilton so Lewis – at a faster pace due to his changed strategy – would be chasing Sergio Perez for 2nd place.

With Ferrari’s improvement on Saturday and Red Bull’s classic pace, Hamilton probably wouldn’t have won on equal terms, but just mentioning it shows how much progress he and Mercedes have made since their first five disastrous races this year. .

Now the W13 again shows a well-built car, reacts to changes as it should, can increase its speed without disturbing everything and every three days triples or quadruples the fight for victory – between Ferstappen, Leclerc, Russel, Hamilton.

As Technical Director Mike Eliot said “That was the first step, now we have to learn to get the best out of the car,” Toto Wolf added: “For the first time this car reminded us of what we had in previous years and won the titles. If you can go from last place to the top like Lewis, then we have good reason to believe we’ll be winning races again soon.” and “Maybe we can get into the battle for the two leagues.”