The Monte Carlo weekend begins with a certainly sparkling Ferrari, and with some already interesting indications, albeit to be taken with all due caution. The road to Q3 in qualifying is in fact incredibly still long, with just 1 hour of data collected on track, but some initial indications are certainly worth noting.
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Ferrari fast in the very slow sections and the two different cautions between Hamilton and Leclerc
The SF26 immediately seemed at ease on the narrow streets of the Principality. Obviously, there is still ample room for improvement, especially mechanically between passing over bumps and descending from the curbs, but the impression is that the work done in Maranello has been fruitful, with a basic mechanical setup that is immediately effective. The data shows a significant gain over all competitors, especially in the absolute slowest sections of the track, notably the descent from Mirabeau to Portier, where mechanical grip is crucial, and which truly seems not to be lacking for now. There is also an interesting difference in approach between Hamilton and Leclerc. The Monegasque, as always, pushes from the very first laps on his home track, and we see significantly faster passages than his teammate in the three highest-speed corners of the track, namely Massenet-Casino, Tabac, and the first part of the Swimming Pool section. The impression is of a Hamilton who is still understandably cautious and trying to gain the best confidence with time, and who can blame him given that it is only the first free practice session. Conversely, in the absolute slowest sections like Loewes, Portier, Rascasse, and Noghes, it is Hamilton who excels, indicating an excellent feeling with his car’s low-speed grip. It is certainly a positive start for the Ferrari duo, but the road to qualifying is definitely still very long.
Mercedes at a distance but with good pace, Verstappen struggling with suspensions, McLaren in difficulty
Behind the red cars, the margins seem tight, but the initial indications are interesting: Mercedes is still at a distance but with excellent sensations from Antonelli, who outpaces Russell and shows good feeling right from the start, excelling especially in traction, but defending very well in slow and long corners. Verstappen, immediately ahead of Antonelli in the session classification, already seems to be driving by looking for some “original” lines, as he is often forced to do in the Principality, especially to avoid bumps and dips and a suspension setup that is still absolutely problematic and difficult to manage for his single-seater. Max’s potential is always very high, but the suspension response, which is very out of phase with the stresses, requires deep recalibration work that we will see if the Milton Keynes team manages to do for the next sessions.
A separate discussion for now for McLaren. We have seen how the Woking team’s car is very reactive in changes of direction even at low speeds, but it struggles when slow corners become long and sweeping. And Monte Carlo does have changes of direction, but a central component of the track where the corners are extremely slow and long, and where, for now, the single-seater driven by Norris and Piastri shows evident difficulties. Even the new front wing, tested again on track, does not seem to give the desired balancing results, and there will therefore be a need for a significant revision of the mechanical setup to try to overturn the current sensations in the central part of the track.
We will resume shortly with the second free practice session to find out how the teams will have modified their setups and if Ferrari will still have such a significant advantage over all competitors.
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