What might be stated about Ferrari? We might speak about a thousand issues, however essentially the most becoming phrases to outline this SF-25 in its Miami model are unpredictable and inconsistent. A automobile that’s extraordinarily troublesome to handle, the place Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc attempt to work miracles to realize disappointing outcomes. That is basically the important thing storyline of the Florida weekend, a observe that uncovered the Ferrari automobile’s limits far more than the Maranello engineers had anticipated.
Telemetry knowledge from the sectors reveal Ferrari’s issues. The Miami qualifying session reveals an SF-25 automobile in clear growing problem in comparison with what was seen within the Friday Dash Shootout. Charles Leclerc finishes with a major hole: +0.550 seconds from the highest, confirming a worrying pattern for the SF-25. A part of this worsening might be defined by a identified issue: the mandatory increased journey heights between the Dash and the race.
And for a challenge so delicate to journey peak like Ferrari’s, this transition represents a concrete impediment to efficiency. The information speaks for itself: the majority of the difficulties are concentrated within the first sector, the place Charles Leclerc loses as a lot as 0.422 seconds from the reference, and within the second sector, the place Ferrari is barely the ninth quickest of all of the vehicles. An in depth evaluation of the lap reveals a Monegasque compelled to make steady micro-corrections.
Specifically, he does this to stabilize a rear axle that proved unstable and twitchy all through the session. The SF-25’s stability was clearly too delicate, and oversteering “killed” the efficiency out of the corners. In the meantime, within the sluggish part, from nook 11 to 16, the Pink automobile seemed extra like a rally automobile than a Formulation 1 single-seater: numerous meters pushed sideways, dropping traction and confidence flip after flip.
With telemetry in hand, a primary vital second is instantly noticeable on the braking of flip 1: Charles Leclerc loses greater than two tenths in comparison with Max Verstappen. The Dutchman brakes later, for much less time, carries +3 kilometers per hour on the middle of the nook, and manages to get again on the gasoline sooner, even approaching flip 2 virtually at full throttle. In the meantime, Charles Leclerc nonetheless wants just a few extra meters earlier than he can belief the automobile and ground the accelerator.
The pattern repeats itself at flip 4, the place the Monegasque is compelled to make a major braking adjustment to insert the automobile correctly, dropping one other 0.035 seconds. The unstable setup doesn’t enable him to be exact, and that is expensive on a observe the place each nook is carefully linked to the subsequent. Flip 6-7, the lengthy sweeping nook on the restrict, is one other weak level the place he loses a tenth.
The SF-25 visibly slides on the rear. On the straights, it manages to restrict the injury, indicating that drag just isn’t the primary difficulty, however within the sluggish part from flip 11 to 16, the automobile’s habits was at occasions actually incomprehensible. Charles Leclerc, identical to Lewis Hamilton, is consistently compelled into counter-steering to regulate a rear finish that tends to interrupt unfastened.
This habits strains the rear tires, inflicting them to overheat rapidly: traction and stability are absent. Solely between turns 11 and 13, Charles Leclerc loses 0.185 seconds, a large margin in such a brief area. The second that greatest sums up the scenario comes by way of radio, on the finish of the lap, when Charles Leclerc exclaims: “My God, I don’t know what’s taking place. And that was even an excellent lap. I don’t perceive.”
These are phrases that carry weight, as a result of they have been spoken by a driver who hardly ever lets such feedback slip. In abstract, what was seen on Saturday was a Ferrari that was utterly unpredictable, unstable, and particularly fragile in traction and within the phases the place good mechanical grip is essential. Till the Maranello group finds an answer on this space, it will likely be troublesome to anticipate any actual step ahead in comparison with the opposite prime groups.
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