Ferrari is focusing 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 workforce principal Frederic Vasseur noticed that the workforce wanted to deal with enhancing its personal efficiency in an effort to begin additional forward on the grid. He defined that when this objective is achieved, the race adjustments solely, with the potential to achieve six or seven seconds within the first 5 or 6 laps as an alternative 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 largely 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 Crew Principal acknowledged that for 35 laps, Charles Leclerc was sooner than Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Nevertheless, it was an uneven comparability, because the Ferrari driver had tyres 10 laps brisker than the main duo within the last 20 laps. Nonetheless, it’s telling that after 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 identical 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 by way of race situations, unable, nonetheless, 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 that they had struggled extra in qualifying and wanted to focus on that side. 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 likewise emphasised the significance of being extra constant all through the complete 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 almost the complete 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 variation 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 honest to marvel why Ferrari doesn’t attempt to velocity up the preparation lap to heat the tyres higher. Nevertheless, 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, regardless that 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 is not only to convey the tyre in rapidly, however to stabilize it as properly, with out overheating it over the remainder of the lap.
The artwork of tyre preparation
The Maranello engineers and technicians are subsequently working to enhance what has step by step turn out to be a real artwork. As Simone Berra, Pirelli’s Chief Engineer, defined the earlier yr, tyre preparation includes a compromise between holding the rear steady and guaranteeing the entrance is straight away prepared for the primary sector. The Italian engineer famous that balancing each axles is considerably tougher 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 largely 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. Nevertheless, complicating all the things had been the 37 levels celsius on observe in Q3, and particularly the mix of a really mushy compound with significantly easy observe floor, a mixture that shrinks the tyre’s grip peak into an especially slim working window. All this made it very straightforward to overheat the tyre by the tip of the lap, requiring a cautious strategy 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 carefully linked not solely to the automotive itself but in addition to the best way the human aspect interacts with it, describing it as a captivating mix of each areas. In Maranello, suspension setups will likely 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 automotive’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 will likely be essential, 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 learning, and the extra information they acquire, the extra they’ll apply it to automotive design, setup choices, and even changes to the motive force’s model.
Qualifying struggles will not be only a tyre problem, because the SF-25 inherits from the 2024 automotive an aerodynamic idea aimed toward race efficiency. It’s a consequence of the intense sensitivity of floor impact vehicles to journey 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 workforce has its personal strategy to optimizing the automotive’s efficiency. The British engineer famous that that is why the hierarchy among the many vehicles tends to shift barely when transferring from qualifying to the race.
Engineers typically repeat that the best way the automotive strikes in relation to the bottom adjustments fully between qualifying and race, each as a consequence of gas load and, above all, as a consequence of velocity. In a nook taken at 200 kilometers per hour in qualifying, going simply 10 kilometers per hour slower within the race can scale 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 could range 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 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 could be doable by aerodynamic updates. This, nonetheless, will depend upon how lengthy Ferrari considers it worthwhile to proceed creating the present venture earlier than shifting all sources to the 2026 Method 1 automotive.
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