What Madrid Friday said
The Madring is proving to be exactly what was expected on the eve: a huge technical puzzle, where finding performance means putting together very different aspects. Energy deployment, mechanical setup, tire management and of course driving must coexist on a track that presents a great variety of challenges: fast chicanes where you have to jump on the curbs, support corners, the elevated Monumental, high-speed direction changes and restarts below 120 km/h.
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A potpourri that forces the search for compromise setups and strategies, which maximize performance throughout the lap, necessarily accepting difficulties in some parts of the track. After the first day of free practice Ferrari and Mercedes seem to be the two teams that, together with Racing Bulls, have best interpreted the problem, although arriving at very similar results through at least partly different paths.
Ferrari and Mercedes converge
Both in the first and second free practice sessions we saw a Ferrari continuously building its lap especially in the first two sectors, while Mercedes tends to recover in the final part. One of the main themes remains obviously that of “deployment”, that is the distribution of electric energy throughout the lap: the SF-26 releases more energy in the first part, up to the Monumental and especially in the most important semi-straight of the track, which leads to turn 5. Mercedes, on the other hand, seemed to conserve a greater amount of energy to be used later in the return phase, after the Monumental, between the very fast turn 15 and the subsequent high-speed right-left “snake”.
Compared to the first session, however, the differences have significantly reduced. If in FP1 the two philosophies appeared almost exaggerated, in the second free practice the energy management became much more similar, while maintaining some recognizable characteristics. This is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the day: as both teams acquired data and confidence with the circuit, their respective solutions began to converge. The same goes for the mechanical behavior of the cars.
Ferrari softens the rear
During the first free practice we highlighted the remarkable speed peaks reached by Ferrari at the end of the Monumental. In the afternoon session these peaks significantly decreased, while at the same time the SF-26 showed better behavior in slow corners and especially in traction phases.
The most plausible reading is therefore that of an intervention on the rear setup, with a car made softer on the rear axle to increase mechanical grip in restarts from low speeds. A particularly delicate compromise at Madring, because what helps in the slow can become problematic precisely at the end of the Monumental, where the car undergoes enormous vertical compression.
From our calculations the extra vertical load that the cars undergo is about 1.7-1.8G, so an aspect far from secondary compared to the suspension setup (and floor wear). Hence probably the need to limit speed more in the final part of the elevated section, sacrificing something at that point to build an overall more effective car for the rest of the lap, and indeed Leclerc went from about 290 km/h exit speed to about 275 in FP2, while Antonelli from 275 to 283, a sign of an opposite path and generally of a work by the two teams revolving around the same core reference values.
Mercedes, for its part, continues to show a greater availability of energy in the area of turn 15 and the subsequent snake. Here too, however, the advantage is definitely less than in the first session.
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In fast direction changes Ferrari and Mercedes now appear extremely close, another element that suggests a progressive convergence also regarding the roll stiffness of the two cars. The result is a substantially balanced situation, with even the gap graph cancelling out in the third sector, and rising to the final tenth precisely in the last meters of the lap.
Compared to other tracks, a tenth on this track, so long and complex, means a substantial performance tie and if we look at the best sector times, the ideal lap of Leclerc and that of Antonelli differ by just 4 thousandths, after a session closed by the two respectively in second and first position.
Mercedes still seems to have something in the engine. Redbull and McLaren chasing
In this picture Mercedes still gives the impression of having slightly more margin from the Power Unit point of view. Not necessarily an advantage already fully expressed on the stopwatch, but rather a reserve that could become particularly important when more aggressive mappings start to be used in qualifying. Behind them the situation is less defined. Red Bull seems to have significant growth potential, but some parts of the Madring seem to fit poorly with the characteristics of the car and could represent a complicated obstacle in the race for pole position. Obviously the Verstappen factor remains, which especially on such a complex circuit can represent an important variable.
Even harder to interpret is McLaren, protagonist of a decidedly negative day. In the afternoon, in fact, only Oscar Piastri drove but with disappointing performances, especially lacking in traction and corner exit phases and constantly with a level of grip lower than the best. Added to this is the session missed by Norris, which will certainly be an important problem in the search for the best setup and the limit on track in a weekend where every minute spent on the track is gold for drivers and engineers. The potential to recover exists, but compared to Ferrari and Mercedes the Woking team seems to start from a much more backward position in the path of this weekend.
Traffic and tires will be decisive
Some positive indications for Ferrari also came on race pace, especially regarding degradation. Curiously the soft could prove to be a more interesting tire over distance than qualifying: in long runs it is subjected to lower longitudinal stresses, due to a lower drive torque compared to a flying lap. While in the “time attack” the huge torque delivered to the ground by these cars in slow restarts quickly heats the rear, with the tendency to go out of the ideal window, but only, indeed, in the single lap. The reading of long runs remains extremely complicated due to traffic, probably one of the themes destined to influence the whole weekend.
After Friday, therefore, the Madring remains an unknown. As things get more serious the risk of accidents will increase, and every part of the track, with its ever different challenges, will become both a trap and an opportunity for drivers and engineers. It will be interesting to see already in the third free practice what the overnight work of the various teams on setups and deployment strategies will bring to understand if there will be even more convergence.
