Following his sensational lap in Saturday's qualifying which saw Charles Leclerc claim a shock pole position for Ferrari, the Monegasque endured a heartbreaking result at the Hungarian Grand Prix despite his impressive pace during his first two stints of the race. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis in his column branded as F1MATHS.
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Disappointing after that first run - not sure why everyone else improved and Ferrari couldn’t; I guess what they’re saying is that this was the maximum but you have to believe the track was slightly faster at the end and if they’d done the best lap at the end, it would have been an improvement.
Quite a few places with small margins so it’s a real shame to be 4th. I feel like anything can happen in the race and the straight line speed may help against the mclarens tactically - depending on track position - but Max is also on low downforce so no advantage there. I do think Max probably made the biggest difference today tbh.
Disappointing after that first run - not sure why everyone else improved and Ferrari couldn’t; I guess what they’re saying is that this was the maximum but you have to believe the track was slightly faster at the end and if they’d done the best lap at the end, it would have been an improvement.
Quite a few places with small margins so it’s a real shame to be 4th. I feel like anything can happen in the race and the straight line speed may help against the mclarens tactically - depending on track position - but Max is also on low downforce so no advantage there. I do think Max probably made the biggest difference today tbh.
Tire prep may have impacted it as well, Vasseur said they prioritized it in the last lap of Q3 but they need to review whether it worked or not.
Their previous laps were extremely good so it's a shame.
LeClerc's first Q3 lap was a blinder of a lap - I don't think the car had anything more - the job he did with it in Lesmos and Ascari was spectacular. There was a front-on TV shot of the cars coming out of the pitlane onto the track in one of the Q sessions where LeClerc came out just behind Antonelli - seeing both cars front on, the first thing I noticed was that Ferrari had more ride height than the Mercedes (not the height of the nose, the height of the tea tray). With such a car, with that rear wing, what both drivers did (LeClerc in particular) is simply superb. Yes its super slippery (which Ferrari in ground effect era has been, for any wing level, relative to others) , but it has much less downforce than others, for the same wing levels. Last year, where the car didn't have the rear-suspension-ride-height-plank-wear problem, LeClerc was able to make the one-stop work in Monza. Not sure about this year, tyres are going to slide and heat up more (even if the tarmac has bedded in after getting relaid last year).
Neither guy had a tow, neither guy improved... great team effort.
This is how you get a tow in Monza,I read that because the cars are very unloaded, they get the effect even at such a distance, and if you are closer, you will also get dirty air in the corners.
Otherwise according to you no driver has ever gotten a tow in q3.