Ferrari disaster in qualifying: wrong strategy on warm-up and tire blankets to blame | Singapore GP
Yesterday at 06:57 AM
Ferrari squandered a great result. Round 18 of the 2024 Formula 1 championship becomes tough for the Maranello team. Meanwhile, Lando Norris took pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix. The Englishman capitalized on a perfectly balanced car with minimal corrections. Piastri, however, made a mistake at the final chicane, failing to manage tire overheating at the end of his push. The Australian suffered oversteer coming out of Turn 17, likely costing him a front-row start. As mentioned, Ferrari made a mess.
They practically didn't show up in Q3. The Maranello car was balanced but failed to manage tire temperatures well. Carlos Sainz had to wait too long at the pit exit, causing his tire temperatures to drop, and he couldn't activate the proper grip on the out-lap. Added to this was Leclerc's issue, where a problem with the left tire blanket caused him even more difficulty. The wrong preparation phase prevented the tires from following a proper hysteresis cycle, compromising both drivers before they could even complete their lap.
Charles Leclerc struggled with rotation in Turn 1, sending his car off the track at Turn 2. Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, lost the rear in acceleration after Turn 18, crashing into the wall while still in the launch phase. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen took advantage of others’ mistakes to secure the front two rows. Both optimized their setup improvements between Friday and Saturday, gaining confidence as their laps progressed. Mercedes also made further flap adjustments during qualifying, improving grip after a difficult Q1.
Max Verstappen's solid performance is immediately noticeable when looking at his mid-corner speeds. The world champion was the only one able to maintain a pace close to the McLaren duo, who proved to be the fastest overall in Q3. The data from Ferrari's drivers comes from Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc's Q2 laps. It's clear how the two "Carlos" wasted the chance to start from the front row. Charles maintained the fastest average in the medium-slow corners, but the tire blanket issue weighed heavily on him.
Not being able to prepare his tires properly robbed the Monegasque of the chance to replicate and improve on his Q2 lap to fight for a better race position. The layout of the Marina Bay circuit features several straights, offering teams the option to choose different setups. Mercedes opted to maximize straight-line performance, sacrificing some cornering speed. On the main stretches, Hamilton and Russell consistently maintained better averages. However, they showed difficulty mid-corner, with a growing delta as the corners required more aerodynamic work.
Still, Lewis and George managed to improve their mid-corner speed as the laps went on. In Q1, both repeatedly complained over the radio about the lack of grip compared to the third practice session. Cooler track temperatures or some incorrect setup adjustments reduced the W15's performance. The engineers, using the extra time provided by the red flag, figured out what to change to allow the drivers to bring more heat into the tires. Let's compare Alonso, Verstappen, and Norris in the first few corners of the Singapore track.
Here, a key difference in driver approaches emerges. Fernando and Max were among the fastest, but the world champion adopted a more aggressive braking style, allowing him to gain time during corner entry. Norris, on the other hand, preferred to accelerate earlier on the exit, a choice that proved effective in preserving his tires during the first part of the lap. This more conservative management paid off in the end, where Lando maintained better rear grip, while Verstappen suffered from oversteer exiting the slower corners.
After practice, the Red Bull team opted for a stiffer setup on Verstappen's RB20, a choice that may have compromised traction and made the car more unstable exiting corners. This stiffness caused more lateral slipping, oversteer, and understeer, generating excess energy in the tires, negatively affecting not only the individual corner but also the subsequent ones due to the tires’ progressive degradation. For Ferrari, the speed values recorded in the first two corners of the circuit highlight a crucial problem: tire preparation.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc took a more cautious approach compared to their rivals, likely to preserve performance for the final part of the lap. However, as seen in the later sectors (T7, T9, and Turn 18), the Ferrari drivers regained speed, aligning with the best sector times. The situation for Ferrari appears complex heading into the race, especially considering the difficulty of overtaking in Singapore, as demonstrated by last year's victory. The error in tire management during Q3 compromised the team’s potential.
Due to the 1.5°C drop in track temperature between Charles Leclerc's best lap in Q2 and his final attempt in Q3, Ferrari's strategy of starting with slightly colder tires to have an advantage in the latter part of the lap didn't work. The long wait in the pit lane, stuck behind Alonso, a poor warm-up lap, and the tire blanket issue caused the tire temperatures to drop too much. As a result, both Ferrari drivers were forced to start their decisive laps with tires outside the optimal window.
Clearly, the race is compromised. Although there are plenty of straights at Marina Bay, along with DRS zones, the complexity of the layout makes overtaking almost as difficult as in Monaco. The chances of fighting for top positions are very low. Perhaps, in hindsight, it would have been more effective to prepare the tires with two warm-up laps, but the damage was already done. Ferrari hopes for some external events to help them, as the Safety Car is always just around the corner on a track like this, and they'll try to capitalize on any mistakes from their rivals to recover ground.
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