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The blanket for the Rossa is short, very short. Ferrari attempted to aerodynamically load Charles Leclerc’s SF1000 for qualifying in an attempt to preserve the rear soft tires from excessive wear, such as not to close the third sector of the Abu Dhabi track without grip.
Yas Marina is a stop and go track that exerts pressure on the tires in traction and finding a good balance that rewards mechanical balance with aerodynamics is a very complicated exercise, since the best compromise is sought.
Aware of having a machine that is a “wall” due to the drag it generates, Cavallino’s technicians rejected the lightest bucket rear wing, seen in free practice, to focus on the flat main profile with a fairly generous chord.
A choice that meant a sharp drop in top speeds in the first intermediate, but which undoubtedly improved the situation in the second and third sectors of the track. It should be remembered that the “pool table” in Abu Dhabi is a track with a surface very affected by sudden changes in temperature, so the evolution of the track must be followed carefully and without exasperation.
Charles Leclerc in Q1 put up an astonishing performance in 1’35 “881 on soft tires, paying more than three-tenths of a super Hamilton, but cutting 112 thousandths of Max Verstappen, who later claimed third pole of his career.
The Monegasque gave the feeling of being able to repeat something special to which the Cavallino fans have become accustomed on the fastest lap. Charles manages to extract everything in the SF1000 and even more, while Sebastian Vettel stays within limits to avoid falling into those twists that characterized the last phase of his adventure at Rosso.
Ferrari has been deluded into thinking that it could pursue the role of third force even in a historically difficult plant for Maranello. Leclerc confirmed this thesis by passing the Q2 trap on medium tires: he took sixth time in 1’35 ”932, attached to Lando Norris’s McLaren that his performance had obtained on the soft.
In short, as the asphalt temperature dropped and grip increased, it was reasonable to expect a competitive Leclerc for the third row. The one-tenth increase in time compared to Q1 is easily explained by the difference in performance between the two compounds, obviously to the benefit of soft.
And, instead, in Q3 something must have gone wrong in the choices of the technicians who probably took the concepts to the extremes, without taking into account that the asphalt temperature had dropped to 27 degrees from 30 degrees at the beginning of the session. The fact is that Charles could not improve the time in Q2 obtained with the harder compound: the boy worsened by 97 thousandths, while Max Verstappen managed to remove something like four tenths. An eternity! And even Lewis Hamilton, even though he made a mistake in T3, reduced his performance by at least a tenth in the final race of Q3.
Probably a road was taken in the setting that did not follow the increase in grip given by the evolution of the track.
Leclerc in the speed trap with 318.4 km / h paid a difference of 5.6 km / h with the Mercedes of the epta champion and 1.1 km / h only with the Red Bull of the poleman, but the gap was It opened in the other two sectors in which Ferrari left the RB16 of the Dutchman from 4 to 6 km / h, compensating even greater gaps with the Mercedes that slightly unloaded the wings.
“Honestly, I cannot explain this performance – Leclerc said vehemently – so I would like to look closely at the data, because we did better in the first quarter than in the third quarter. I did not expect to do worse, but I have had problems from the second sector on with the rear tires.
Leclerc, ninth at the end of qualifying, will have to line up 12th due to the penalty that was imposed after contact with Sergio Pérez at the Sakhir GP. The Monegasque will start on medium tires and will try not to have to take the soft ones in the second stint, moving more to the hard ones, when the track will be rubberized with all twenty cars on track at the same time. It is reasonable to expect a more competitive Ferrari during the race.
Where can Leclerc go, as Sebastian looks forward to closing a chapter in his career that has reached the end credits?
