Ferrari is focusing on the efficiency within the qualifying classes so as to have the ability to enhance its general outcomes. On the finish of the Jeddah race weekend, Ferrari staff principal Frederic Vasseur noticed that the staff wanted to concentrate on enhancing its personal efficiency with a view to begin additional forward on the grid. He defined that when this purpose is achieved, the race adjustments completely, with the potential to realize six or seven seconds within the first 5 – 6 laps as an alternative of dropping time. The efficiency hole between Saturday and Sunday stems from the aerodynamic idea of the SF-25, however that doesn’t imply there isn’t a room for enchancment. The work on qualifying largely includes tyre preparation, drawing on the experience of the brand new technical director Loic Serra.
Good race tempo
On the 6.174-kilometre Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the Ferrari Group Principal acknowledged that for 35 laps, Charles Leclerc was quicker than Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Nevertheless, it was an uneven comparability, because the Ferrari driver had tyres 10 laps more energizing than the main duo within the ultimate 20 laps. Nonetheless, it’s telling that after he discovered clear air after George Russell’s pit cease, the Monegasque driver lowered his lap instances within the first stint, even being two tenths quicker than Max Verstappen’s instances on the finish of his stint. An identical dynamic was noticed within the comparability with Mercedes per week earlier on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit, on a monitor and floor which can be the exact opposite of the Saudi Arabian one.
The general image exhibits a really aggressive Ferrari when it comes to race situations, unable, nonetheless, to specific its tempo whereas caught in soiled air. Therefore Frederic Vasseur’s push to focus efforts on Saturday efficiency: the French supervisor acknowledged that they’d struggled extra in qualifying and wanted to focus on that facet. He identified that ranging from fourth place meant being in soiled air, which led to dropping a few seconds within the first 5 – 6 laps and likewise emphasised the significance of being extra constant all through the complete weekend.
The similarities between the SF-25, the sleek asphalt and the quick corners of Jeddah highlighted one other of Ferrari’s limitations. In qualifying, Charles Leclerc was on pole place tempo for practically the complete lap, dropping all three and a half tenths in simply the primary two corners. Within the race, as soon as he discovered himself in clear air through the first stint, the Monegasque matched Max Verstappen’s instances within the first sector simply earlier than the cease. This variation of scene exhibits how the qualifying hole largely stemmed from tyre preparation, whose significance was additionally highlighted by the four-time Formulation 1 world champion. In his ultimate Q3 lap, the Dutchman improved his first sector by three tenths in comparison with the earlier try, benefiting from Yuki Tsunoda’s slipstream and monitor evolution, but additionally from higher tyre readiness in flip 1 after complaining about it simply minutes earlier.
It’s truthful to surprise why Ferrari doesn’t attempt to pace up the preparation lap to heat the tyres higher. Nevertheless, it isn’t only a matter of heating them up, however a broader situation associated to compound exploitation. On the identical monitor, for instance, in 2024, Charles Leclerc tried the double prep lap method, however was nonetheless quicker with a single warm-up lap, despite the fact that the tyre was not but in its optimum window. Ferrari’s drawback just isn’t heating the tyres, however extracting grip from the compound. The problem isn’t just to carry the tyre in rapidly, however to stabilize it as nicely, with out overheating it over the remainder of the lap.
The artwork of tyre preparation
The Maranello engineers and technicians are subsequently working to enhance what has step by step turn out to be a real artwork. As Simone Berra, Pirelli’s Chief Engineer, defined the earlier 12 months, tyre preparation includes a compromise between preserving the rear secure and making certain the entrance is instantly prepared for the primary sector. The Italian engineer famous that balancing each axles is considerably tougher in excessive ambient temperatures, whereas it turns into simpler in cooler situations and on circuits with many high-speed corners that help in warming up the tyres.
In Jeddah, the abundance of quick corners helped with tyre preparation, subjecting the tyres to largely lateral hundreds extra evenly distributed throughout the 4 wheels in comparison with the stress of braking or traction, which consider one of many two axles. Nevertheless, complicating every thing have been the 37 levels celsius on monitor in Q3, and particularly the mix of a really gentle compound with significantly easy monitor floor, a combination that shrinks the tyre’s grip peak into an especially slim working window. All this made it very straightforward to overheat the tyre by the tip of the lap, requiring a cautious strategy within the first few meters. Ferrari had a neater time within the race, exactly as a result of the used tyre, as soon as stabilized, might function throughout a wider temperature vary.
To enhance, Ferrari is counting on the experience of technical director Loic Serra, a tyre specialist. In the course of the presentation of the SF-25 single-seater, the Frenchman defined that tyre administration is carefully linked not solely to the automobile itself but additionally to the way in which the human component interacts with it, describing it as an interesting mix of each areas. In Maranello, suspension setups can be studied to assist the tyre work higher over a single lap, however, as Adrian Newey reminds us, the setup is usually complementary to the traits of the automobile’s idea.
Additional room for enchancment lies within the driving through the warm-up lap, a way to be refined along with the drivers. To succeed, a greater understanding of the brand new 2025 Pirelli tire can be crucial, with which groups are nonetheless taking their first steps. The Jeddah weekend marked solely the second outing of the C5 compound this season, which can return in Miami, the place Ferrari hopes to see some progress. Loic Serra had already cautioned again in February that tyre work is a steady, unending course of, whether or not it includes long-distance administration or extracting larger efficiency over a single lap. The Ferrari technical director famous that they continue to learn, and the extra information they acquire, the extra they’ll apply it to automobile design, setup choices, and even changes to the motive force’s fashion.
Qualifying struggles are usually not only a tyre situation, because the SF-25 inherits from the 2024 automobile an aerodynamic idea geared toward race efficiency. It’s a consequence of the acute sensitivity of floor impact vehicles to journey top, a facet that forces groups to decide on the optimum floor clearance for the ground. As Jock Clear, Ferrari’s Senior Efficiency Engineer, defined again in September, every staff has its personal strategy to optimizing the automobile’s efficiency. The British engineer famous that this is the reason the hierarchy among the many vehicles tends to shift barely when transferring from qualifying to the race.
Engineers usually repeat that the way in which the automobile strikes in relation to the bottom adjustments utterly between qualifying and race, each as a consequence of gas load and, above all, as a consequence of pace. In a nook taken at 200 kilometers per hour in qualifying, going simply 10 kilometers per hour slower within the race can scale back downforce by 100 kilograms, which is the equal of a full gas tank. Jock Clear noticed that in some corners, a automobile’s competitiveness might differ relying on the quantity of gas onboard and whether or not it’s throughout qualifying or the race.
Subsequently, efficiency over a single lap additionally is dependent upon the working level chosen for the SF-25 single-seater. The Ferrari technicians have room to regulate the setup, persevering with to work on the trade-off between journey top and suspension stiffness to attempt to extract extra efficiency from the ground in qualifying, so long as this doesn’t compromise tyre put on within the race. On paper, additional optimization could be attainable via aerodynamic updates. This, nonetheless, will depend upon how lengthy Ferrari considers it worthwhile to proceed creating the present mission earlier than shifting all sources to the 2026 Formulation 1 automobile.
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