Ferrari: Red Bull’s settings deserve an analysis
Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc offered a great battle to the spectators in Saudi Arabia. While the Dutchman ultimately triumphed, Ferrari is closely studying the settings of the RB18.
Even though the gap was smaller between Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in Jeddah, there are still some notable differences between the two cars.
On one hand, Ferrari has opted for increased aerodynamic downforce, making the F1-75 more powerful in accelerations and slow turns. On the other hand, Red Bull has chosen reduced drag, improving high-speed performance.
At the end of the race, these adjustments gave Max Verstappen a considerable advantage as they offered him the opportunity to overtake his Monégasque rival in the DRS zone. Ferrari’s team principal, Mattia Binotto, had already observed differences in settings during Friday’s practice sessions. Indeed, while Red Bull chose to lower their wings, Ferrari chose to maintain strong downforce to preserve their tires, a technique that had proven successful in Bahrain. However, with the majority of hard tires in Saudi Arabia, Ferrari did not come out on top.
« Max had a higher level of support on Friday, which he reduced afterwards, noticed Mattia Binotto. « We ourselves decided to maintain a high level of support because we believed it was good for the tires. But ultimately, during the race, degradation was very low. I think their choice deserves an analysis on our part. But in the end, it’s always a compromise. It’s only a matter of details and good parts that decide in the end, he admitted.
A decisive choice of tires
On the other hand, Max Verstappen believes that the competitiveness of Red Bull did not increase between Bahrain and Jeddah.
“A step forward? It’s difficult to say,” Max Verstappen confided. “But I think we are constantly learning, and each track is different, just like what we expect from the car, so there are a lot of things to look at. I didn’t feel so good with the mediums. As soon as we got too close to the car in front, the tires deteriorated. There wasn’t really a race at that moment,” he continued.
“It was a bit frustrating to sit there and wait for the right moment to come into the pit and change tires, because as soon as I switched to hard compounds, I had a much better feeling,” Verstappen revealed.
