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Starting by saying the least pork rind for the 2021 Formula 1 season. A very tight classification, with pole in the balance between Hamilton and Verstappen and with the positions from the second row onwards continuously updated. There’s no more error range, at least that seems to say the first verdict of the year. There general competitiveness has become too high, and also the car that looks better overall at the moment, that is, the Red Bull, leaves Pérez out of Q3 for having tried a lap on medium tires with the Mexican still not at the maximum sensations with the new car. Nice that it is and we hope it will also be confirmed on more representative and more technical tracks. With this in mind, the second race at Imola could yield more concrete verdicts. But staying in Bahrain, what we have seen ahead is a battle for pole between one Mercedes that only with Hamilton find a square and a RedBull that we can now officially say can actually do fear the reigning world champions.
Verstappen not only has a car in his hands stable in direction changes and in the rear, but also a vehicle with lots of downforce and with a lot efficiency, capable of higher speeds in almost all stretch off the track and at the same time to take home partial corner surveys often superior to the competition. The impression, even looking at the performance of the Alpha Tauri which we will discuss shortly, is that under the hood of the RB16B there is a drive unit that you really found many horses, allowing Newey to raise the bar on downforce. It is no coincidence thatload index Verstappen’s car (which is the ratio of top speed to average lap speed) turns out to be higher than Mercedes by about 0.2% and higher than the rest of the competition more than 1.1%. This measurement is only indicative, since it is totally true only when comparing cars with power parity, but yet it had hardly ever happened in the recent past to see a Mercedes outdated to that extent. A great job from the Austrian manufacturer and Honda, despite being in the last season in F1, and very good headache for Wolff and his companions, who nevertheless seem very strong at the front race pace. Therefore, we will see tomorrow between these two hopefuls for victory who have also developed the front better. tire management.
Ferrari: no mincing words can be said very well
To say that Ferrari should always fight at the top of history is a banality, and realism should do it instead. smile Maranello fans. The summit is not within reach, but last season’s disaster seems, for now, to be shelved. Only a few error and the difficulties of adaptation they took a Sainz the ability to get closer to Leclerc, after the first two qualifying stages, really magistrali for Spanish. Then in Q3 a beautiful tour of Leclerc gives a fourth place where it seemed legitimate to wait, but without saying it too forcefully.
Instead came the second row just one tenth of a Bottas in difficulty (which you would do well to hastily understand that you have to change gears if you want to stay where you are). Comparison with theAlpha Tauri in Gasly, fifth and first rival in tomorrow’s race, he talks about a car from Faenza that has chosen a very good set-up more download compared to all the competition. Going back to the load index, compared to Verstappen (and here we are at the same power), Gasly’s car seems to have a good 1.56% less downforce. And compared to Leclerc it is clear how much the French has some elongation measures that are always much faster than the Monegasque, with peaks of +8 km / h on the back straight. However, the data show a careful work of Maranello. The activity we had glimpsed on the front seems to have carried excellent results, and that’s where it is needed stability under braking that SF21 number 16 takes from excellent relative, as in Turn 8, Turn 10 and Turn 14. Then the approach to difficult Turn 11 is excellent, where you need a car whose driver you can trust. Analyzing the separated from corner 1 you can see how much Leclerc can sink more braking and bring more speed to all braking meters. Thanks to this, despite a better Alpha Tauri in traction due to the explosiveness of the Honda engine, Leclerc wins in that phase good 1 tenth and a half. The impression is that the improved power unit let the Maranello team get going much more balanced setups, exploiting, finally, the fortresses without being perpetually in defense. In fact, the “blanket”, so short last year, has been stretched enough to have a modicum of ease. Actually a good job carried out by the Maranello technicians, therefore, both in terms of the car in general and in the running of the race weekend, where the changes have produced continuous improvements. It remains to check the race pace head-on, which will not be easy, especially since the drivers will start with soft rubber. The two-stop race, however, could leave a door open for Ferrari on this front. The podium seems frankly unattainable unless there are luck problems, but having two cars between fifth and tenth place would be the confirmation of a big improvement.
