The start of the season for Mercedes has been quite encouraging, as they showed off to be the second fastest team behind McLaren, on level terms with Max Verstappen and in front of Ferrari. The W16 is definitely a step forward compared to last year’s car, but still shows some weaknesses that can affect performance in specific conditions. Let’s try to explain why.
The Chinese Grand Prix weekend has a rollercoaster of emotions ready for Ferrari: Hamilton took pole in the Sprint Qualifying and went on to win the 19-lap race on Saturday, but things drastically changed after some setup changes were made on the car before qualifying, making it harder to drive. Both Hamilton and Leclerc were eventually disqualified from the race for technical reasons, which allowed us to understand some hidden secrets of the SF-25. Let’s try to explain them.
The first day of the Sprint weekend in Shanghai started with a very strong first session for McLaren, that showed a great performance both in terms of race pace and qualifying simulations. Despite this, Hamilton grabbed pole for the Sprint in the afternoon, proving that the SF-25 performance hasn’t been affected at all by the new technical directive introduced this weekend.
The Australian Grand Prix weekend offered a complete look of what’s Red Bull real performance across every condition on a specific track like Albert Park. The RB21, despite being ‘much calmer’ than the RB20, as defined by Horner, still lacks speed compared to McLaren and it’s also very difficult for engineers to find the right setup that makes the car enter its operating window. Let’s try to understand why.
The first Grand Prix of the year offered a very similar scenario to the one we already saw, even if it was well hidden during testing in Bahrain. McLaren looked unbeatable for every team both during Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, where the MCL39 was able to be the quickest on every compound (both dry and wet) and in every condition. Let’s try to understand the reason behind this success.
During the three days of testing in Bahrain, Red Bull was surely the team that experimented the most with their new car, trying to extract the full potential from the RB21. A lot of changes were made and some new components appeared on the last day, but according to technical Director Pierre Waché, they didn’t yield the results they hoped. Let’s try to understand why.
During the three days of testing in Bahrain, Ferrari made a lot of tests, with the car reacting differently from time to time. If during the first day the SF-25 looked smooth and precise, its behaviour changed during day 2 and 3, when seemed to have a very strong frond-end, with the rear sliding at the exit of almost every corner. Is this struggle caused by the new pull-rod front suspension?
During the three days of testing in Bahrain, McLaren clearly seemed to have the quickest car with a little gap in front of the other three top teams. Despite not completing as many laps as the competitors, the MCL39 looked extremely well balanced and comfortable in almost every condition, also thanks to the new front suspension. Let’s try to understand why.
During the second day of testing, much more interesting data started to come out. After testing a set of different configurations during the first day, both McLaren and Ferrari simulated the whole Grand Prix length this afternoon, with Norris constantly setting impressive lap times while Leclerc’s pace was more inconsistent.
The first day of testing offered close gaps between all the top teams, but every driver was on a different program during different segments of the day. After spending a lot of time to do a complete scan of all configurations (both aerodynamical and mechanical settings), Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes focused on short race pace simulations with different fuel loads and with interesting results.
