They’re the duo of the yr, essentially the most anticipated pair of the brand new System 1 season. One, at Ferrari since 2019, goals of successful his first World Championship after a 2024 marked by nice development. The opposite, newly arrived in Maranello, will debut in crimson for the primary time on the age of 40 after already successful seven world titles. They’re Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, the drivers Ferrari will area on the grid within the new F1 season. And whereas questions come up about how they are going to coexist within the storage, technical traits and driving preferences transferring in the identical course will ease the variation of Ferrari’s new duo.
All through 2024, it turned clear that driver confidence within the conduct of their respective vehicles performed a elementary position. The flexibility to push to the restrict whereas exploiting the automobile in keeping with their driving model typically made extra of a distinction than will increase in aerodynamic load or effectivity gained from updates. It’s no shock that, over the yr, with the identical automobile on the identical observe, suggestions from teammates typically diverged, as seen with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, in addition to with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, on account of their differing driving types. What appeared to work finest for one driver typically induced points for the opposite, and vice versa.
That Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have practically an identical driving types is due to this fact of great significance because the season approaches. Each drivers carry excessive velocity into nook entry, delaying braking after which urgent laborious on the brake pedal whereas initiating the flip with a really decisive steering enter. From that time, they handle the automobile’s rotation to right any rear instability, “speaking” with the accelerator on the apex, able to push absolutely as soon as the automobile aligns on exit. This trait calls for a extremely responsive entrance finish at nook entry, whereas the ensuing rear-end lightness that induces oversteer is just not an issue. Each Ferrari drivers favor an oversteering automobile that may be managed mid-corner whereas enabling increased entry speeds. This dynamic conduct is much less pronounced in fashionable ground-effect vehicles, that are usually understeering by nature. Nevertheless, it may be adjusted by setup, aerodynamic ideas like load distribution, and suspension response dynamics.
For Ferrari, having two drivers with related driving types shall be extremely advantageous. This could result in sooner automobile setup optimization, which turns into much more essential throughout Dash race weekends with much less time obtainable for setup evaluations. Growth packages may even profit from constant suggestions, enabling the workforce to evaluate their effectiveness with out ambiguity. One other Ferrari driver who favored high-speed nook entry with late braking and targeted on a trajectory that minimized mid-corner time to align the automobile earlier on exit was Michael Schumacher. His model resembles that of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. This similarity is an auspicious signal for Ferrari’s newly shaped pair, already aiming in the identical course with a single objective: to win.
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