In torrid Miami, Ferrari returns to dreaming and making the fans dream. Thanks to a balanced and fast F1-75, but also to the magic of the Monegasque in Q3
Giulio Caronia
08 May 2022 | 14:49 (edited May 08, 2022 | 14:50)
“It was magic, Charles”, a satisfied Mattia Binotto says over the radio. A few seconds earlier, his two drivers colored the front row of the starting grid of the Miami F1 GP red: after the disappointment of Imola was put aside, the Ferrari that had flown to the other side of the planet started to run fast again, to dream and to make people dream the fans. Thanks to a car that confirms itself as the most balanced of the lot, probably the one with which it is easier to find an attitude compromise. But also thanks to the magic of a millimeter Leclerc in the execution of his last attempt in Q3. A record lap, albeit imperfect, exciting perhaps also and above all because of that amazing second sector, able to give the young rider from the Cavallino pole position number 12 in his career, erasing the burr in curve 1.
F1 MIAMI, LECLERC’S DEBURRING
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“It wasn’t all under control – explained the Ferrari driver after the checkered flag – on the contrary, I missed the first three corners. There I lost a lot of respect to Sainz and everyone else, but then I pushed and it went well ”. On closer inspection, Leclerc’s first sector on the decisive lap in Q3 was still his best of the entire qualifying. To understand the extent of the flaw, in the absence of a reference from Verstappen, who had to give up after having counter-steered at high speed, it is therefore necessary to compare the time of the Monegasque with that of his teammate Sainz: 29.278 for the Spaniard, 29.441 for the poleman , 163 thousandths slower in the first sector. And, analyzing the shoot on-boardIn fact, the small but harmful oversteer when entering turn 1 is clear, which then led Charles to enter the next left-hander slightly out of line, a little too close to the curb and still forced to a correction on the steering wheel. A matter of centimeters. Which in a Formula 1 qualifying often constitute the gap between celebrations and regrets.
A DREAM LECLERC
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Who knows, maybe it is precisely because of the imperfection in the first few meters of the lap that Leclerc shook off all tension and threw his heart over the obstacle. The result is a central sector, the slowest and most insidious one, guided with surgical precision dancing between curbs and walls with a grace étoile. And with lightning speed: the lap time in 33,831 in the second part will be more than a tenth faster than Verstappen’s best (33,955), almost two better than Sainz’s (34,017), to cancel the accumulated gap with interest with the mistake of the first curves. A blaze, which allowed the Ferrari driver to grab the first, historic, pole position in the torrid You love medespite a not exciting third sector in which he lost about a tenth of his best split time in Q2 (25,524 against 25,419).
WARM ALLY OF FERRARI?
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Net of the Ferrari masterpiece on the final, the fifth qualifying of the F1 2022 season provides us with a first possible trend in the fight with Red Bull. The F1-75 is confirmed as the “easiest” car to push to the limit, especially in very hot track conditions – up to now, it has only happened in Melbourne and Miami – which lead the single-seaters to slide on the asphalt and complicate the life to pilots and engineers. As in Australia, also in Florida, Verstappen complained all weekend about reliability and set-up problems, probably pushed a little further by the complex management of tire thermal degradation. On the other hand, the Cavallino seems to have a car that sometimes struggles to warm the tires – as seen in the freezing weather of Imola – but which, for this reason, appears less in difficulty with high temperatures and in managing wear and tear in the race. Certainly an encouraging starting point considering the sultry weather of the weekend at the foot of the Hard Rock Stadium.
08 May 2022 (change May 08 2022 | 14:50)
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