Ferrari is concentrating 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 group principal Frederic Vasseur noticed that the group wanted to concentrate on enhancing its personal efficiency as a way to begin additional forward on the grid. He defined that when this purpose is achieved, the race adjustments completely, with the potential to achieve six or seven seconds within the first 5 or 6 laps as a substitute 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 principally 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 said that for 35 laps, Charles Leclerc was sooner than Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Nonetheless, 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 sooner than Max Verstappen’s instances on the finish of his stint. The same dynamic was noticed within the comparability with Mercedes every week earlier on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit, on a observe and floor which might be the exact opposite of the Saudi Arabian one.
The general image reveals a really aggressive Ferrari when it comes to race situations, unable, nevertheless, to specific its tempo whereas caught in soiled air. Therefore Frederic Vasseur’s push to focus efforts on Saturday efficiency: the French supervisor said that that they had 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 or 6 laps and in addition emphasised the significance of being extra constant all through the whole 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 whole 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 throughout the first stint, the Monegasque matched Max Verstappen’s instances within the first sector simply earlier than the cease. This modification of scene reveals 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 observe evolution, but additionally from higher tyre readiness in flip 1 after complaining about it simply minutes earlier.
It’s honest to marvel why Ferrari doesn’t attempt to pace up the preparation lap to heat the tyres higher. Nonetheless, it’s not only a matter of heating them up, however a broader challenge associated to compound exploitation. On the identical observe, for instance, in 2024, Charles Leclerc tried the double prep lap approach, however was nonetheless sooner with a single warm-up lap, although the tyre was not but in its optimum window. Ferrari’s downside is just not heating the tyres, however extracting grip from the compound. The problem isn’t just to convey 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 due to this fact working to enhance what has progressively grow to be a real artwork. As Simone Berra, Pirelli’s Chief Engineer, defined the earlier 12 months, tyre preparation includes a compromise between holding the rear steady and guaranteeing the entrance is instantly prepared for the primary sector. The Italian engineer famous that balancing each axles is considerably more difficult 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 principally lateral hundreds extra evenly distributed throughout the 4 wheels in comparison with the stress of braking or traction, which focus on one of many two axles. Nonetheless, complicating the whole lot had been the 37 levels celsius on observe in Q3, and particularly the mix of a really comfortable compound with significantly easy observe floor, a mixture that shrinks the tyre’s grip peak into an especially slender working window. All this made it very simple to overheat the tyre by the tip of the lap, requiring a cautious method within the first few meters. Ferrari had a better 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. Throughout the presentation of the SF-25 single-seater, the Frenchman defined that tyre administration is intently related not solely to the automotive itself but additionally to the way in which the human ingredient interacts with it, describing it as an interesting mix of each areas. In Maranello, suspension setups shall 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 automotive’s idea.
Additional room for enchancment lies within the driving throughout 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 shall be mandatory, with which groups are nonetheless taking their first steps. The Jeddah weekend marked solely the second outing of the C5 compound this season, which is able to 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, endless course of, whether or not it includes long-distance administration or extracting better efficiency over a single lap. The Ferrari technical director famous that they continue to learn, and the extra data they acquire, the extra they’ll apply it to automotive design, setup selections, and even changes to the driving force’s fashion.
Qualifying struggles are usually not only a tyre challenge, because the SF-25 inherits from the 2024 automotive an aerodynamic idea aimed toward race efficiency. It’s a consequence of the acute sensitivity of floor impact automobiles to journey peak, a side 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 group has its personal method to optimizing the automotive’s efficiency. The British engineer famous that because of this the hierarchy among the many automobiles tends to shift barely when shifting from qualifying to the race.
Engineers usually repeat that the way in which the automotive strikes in relation to the bottom adjustments fully between qualifying and race, each resulting from gas load and, above all, resulting from pace. In a nook taken at 200 kilometers per hour in qualifying, going simply 10 kilometers per hour slower within the race can cut back downforce by 100 kilograms, which is the equal of a full gas tank. Jock Clear noticed that in some corners, a automotive’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 relies on 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 peak 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, nevertheless, will rely upon how lengthy Ferrari considers it worthwhile to proceed growing the present mission earlier than shifting all sources to the 2026 Formulation 1 automotive.
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