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 crew principal Frederic Vasseur noticed that the crew wanted to deal with enhancing its personal efficiency so as to begin additional forward on the grid. He defined that when this objective is achieved, the race adjustments fully, with the potential to realize six or seven seconds within the first 5 – 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 is no such thing as a room for enchancment. The work on qualifying principally entails 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 Staff Principal acknowledged 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 last 20 laps. Nonetheless, it’s telling that when he discovered clear air after George Russell’s pit cease, the Monegasque driver lowered his lap occasions within the first stint, even being two tenths sooner than Max Verstappen’s occasions on the finish of his stint. An analogous dynamic was noticed within the comparability with Mercedes every week earlier on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit, on a observe and floor which can be the exact opposite of the Saudi Arabian one.
The general image reveals a really aggressive Ferrari when it comes to race circumstances, unable, nevertheless, to precise its tempo whereas caught in soiled air. Therefore Frederic Vasseur’s push to focus efforts on Saturday efficiency: the French supervisor acknowledged that they’d 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 – 6 laps and in addition emphasised the significance of being extra constant all through your entire weekend.
The similarities between the SF-25, the graceful asphalt and the quick corners of Jeddah highlighted one other of Ferrari’s limitations. In qualifying, Charles Leclerc was on pole place tempo for almost your entire 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 through the first stint, the Monegasque matched Max Verstappen’s occasions within the first sector simply earlier than the cease. This transformation of scene reveals how the qualifying hole largely stemmed from tyre preparation, whose significance was additionally highlighted by the four-time Method 1 world champion. In his last 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 in addition from higher tyre readiness in flip 1 after complaining about it simply minutes earlier.
It’s truthful to marvel why Ferrari doesn’t attempt to velocity up the preparation lap to heat the tyres higher. Nonetheless, it’s not only a matter of heating them up, however a broader problem associated to compound exploitation. On the identical observe, for instance, in 2024, Charles Leclerc tried the double prep lap method, however was nonetheless sooner with a single warm-up lap, despite the fact that the tyre was not but in its optimum window. Ferrari’s drawback isn’t heating the tyres, however extracting grip from the compound. The problem is not only to carry the tyre in rapidly, however to stabilize it as effectively, 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 steadily turn into a real artwork. As Simone Berra, Pirelli’s Chief Engineer, defined the earlier 12 months, tyre preparation entails a compromise between retaining 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 circumstances 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 masses extra evenly distributed throughout the 4 wheels in comparison with the stress of braking or traction, which think about one of many two axles. Nonetheless, complicating every part had been the 37 levels celsius on observe in Q3, and particularly the mixture of a really delicate compound with significantly easy observe floor, a mixture that shrinks the tyre’s grip peak into a particularly slender working window. All this made it very simple to overheat the tyre by the top of the lap, requiring a cautious strategy within the first few meters. Ferrari had a neater 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. Through the presentation of the SF-25 single-seater, the Frenchman defined that tyre administration is carefully related not solely to the automobile itself but in addition to the best way the human component 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 commonly complementary to the traits of the automobile’s idea.
Additional room for enchancment lies within the driving through 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 vital, with which groups are nonetheless taking their first steps. The Jeddah weekend marked solely the second outing of the C5 compound this season, which can 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, unending course of, whether or not it entails long-distance administration or extracting higher efficiency over a single lap. The Ferrari technical director famous that they continue to learn, and the extra data they achieve, the extra they’ll apply it to automobile design, setup choices, and even changes to the motive force’s fashion.
Qualifying struggles aren’t only a tyre problem, because the SF-25 inherits from the 2024 automobile an aerodynamic idea geared toward race efficiency. It’s a consequence of the acute sensitivity of floor impact automobiles to trip top, a facet 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 crew has its personal strategy to optimizing the automobile’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 typically repeat that the best way the automobile strikes in relation to the bottom adjustments fully between qualifying and race, each on account of gasoline load and, above all, on account of velocity. 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 gasoline tank. Jock Clear noticed that in some corners, a automobile’s competitiveness could differ relying on the quantity of gasoline onboard and whether or not it’s throughout qualifying or the race.
Subsequently, efficiency over a single lap additionally is dependent upon 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 trip top 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 can be attainable by means of 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 Method 1 automobile.
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