Ferrari: how first SF-24 stint provided crucial indications for Mercedes amid tyre strategy at Spa
08/03/2024 07:37 AM
It’s time for summer break in Formula 1, but we can still look back at the Belgian Grand Prix at the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps: George Russell wins for Mercedes, but is later disqualified as his Mercedes Formula 1 car was found to be underweight after having its fuel drained in post-race checks. Second on track was Lewis Hamilton, with another solid performance from the seven-time Formula 1 world champion that can only encourage Ferrari fans in view of the 2025 season: the British driver can clearly compete at the highest level and remains extremely motivated.
Then we have the Ferrari SF-24 of Charles Leclerc, fourth on track in the British Grand Prix, then promoted to a well-deserved podium finish. The Monegasque starts the race well and keeps Lewis Hamilton behind. However, it was soon understood that the pace of the Briton, right behind him, was clearly superior. In just two laps, in fact, the English champion overtook the Monegasque and began to gradually widen the gap, especially in the middle sector. Charles Leclerc lost precious time in the corners of the second sector, sacrificing speed to preserve tire life. Despite this, in the final part of the stint, Charles Leclerc suffered from front graining, which further limited his performance.
Carlos Sainz had a different plan, mounting new Hard tires in the first stint at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps unlike his Maranello teammate. This allowed the Ferrari pit wall to diversify the strategy. Although the Spaniard started with the white-banded Pirelli, he actually maintained a pace just two tenths slower than Charles Leclerc, but completing a run 17 laps longer. Examining the telemetry data of Carlos Sainz's initial stint, it was noted that the degradation of the hard tires was practically nonexistent. Analyzing the data related to the performance of the Spanish driver, it is observed that Carlos Sainz managed to improve his lap times by about 1.5 seconds between the start and the end of the stint.
Probably, observing this trend, the Mercedes technicians realized they could opt for a one-stop strategy with George Russell. They did, taking into account that in the second part of the race, with a lower fuel load, tire consumption would be even lower. A perfect assist provided by the Italian team that the Brackley team, that is always very attentive to the work of their rivals, which is "processed" live through factory simulations validating the idea. Clearly, the rest was done by George Russell himself.
To implement this tactic, in fact, the Mercedes driver still tried to save his tires at precise points on the track, then being able to exploit the good efficiency that the W15 showed on the long high-speed sections at Spa. This situation was supported by the intelligent use of hybrid energy that, during Friday's two free practice sessions, after the data collected in the first two sessions, the team was able to adjust by acting on the power delivery of the motor generators to maximize performance, both in the traction phase and in the various straights of the Belgian track.
Mercedes’ strategy worked very well. Being able to optimize your package and take advantage of any strategic opportunity is a very important factor in Formula 1, especially when performance convergence is present as never before in this racing season and several cars produce a similar level performance, as is currently the case for McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari. At the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the two W15 single-seaters were not the ones to beat based on the maximum potential that could be expressed by the cars. The team led by James Allison, however, was perfect in understanding how to extract the maximum performance. In doing so, they took advantage of the indecisions “offered” by their rivals, which is especially true for McLaren and Ferrari.
McLaren once again threw away a certain superiority that should have been evident. A level of performance supremacy that did not manifest in the qualifying session because the lap construction was wrong. Then, in the race, due to a turtle-like start by Lando Norris, everything became tremendously complicated. The same goes for Red Bull when considering Sergio Perez. The Mexican is facing an unparalleled so-called “performance depression,” while his teammate, Max Verstappen, started from the midfield to the FIA penalty for replacing the internal combustion engine ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Thanks to these factors, Mercedes managed to control the Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton and, in the second stint, implement the extraordinary tire strategy with his teammate. This scenario would have succeeded without the disqualification for underweight car, with an almost unbelievable one-two finish by the German team. It is also worth pointing out that in the first part of the race, George Russell maintained one of the slowest paces, compensated by nonexistent tire wear. Then, on lap 11, there was the call to the pits to mount the Hard compound that would take him to the finish line.
An interesting fact to note: despite the Briton doing about three times the laps on the same tire compared to his rivals, he actually showed a truly incredible pace. As we can see from the data related to the tire degradation, by exploiting the clear track ahead of him, George Russell consistently lowered his lap time. In the final part of his very long run, taking advantage of the performance flattening of his rivals and the increasingly lighter car, he withstood without too much trouble the comeback of Lewis Hamilton, fending off the attacks of his teammate.
In conclusion of this further analysis of the Belgian Grand Prix, let’s think about the comments made by Charles Leclerc after the Spa-Francorchamps round. The Monegasque driver gave a brief analysis of the last race, where he stated that Ferrari, awaiting further updates, actually focused on maximizing results. Indeed, the Prancing Horse partly succeeded, especially with Charles Leclerc. It’s a pity that the same work done by Mercedes, with equal performance and not considering George Russell’s disqualification, led the German team to a one-two finish on track. Now that is what we call optimizing the race weekend.
— see video above —-
The post Ferrari: how first SF-24 stint provided crucial indications for Mercedes amid tyre strategy at Spa appeared first on Scuderia Fans.
