Ferrari again appear to be the team to beat in the battle for victory in Melbourne. The Reds set the fastest time in both practice sessions on Friday and were 0.245 seconds ahead of closest pursuer Red Bull at the end of the day. This means that the duel between the two teams after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia could go into the third round.
“It was a pretty positive day for us,” says Charles Leclerc, who was the fastest in Albert Park on Friday. “The first practice session was a bit difficult for me, but with a little work on the car it got better,” said the Monegasque, who was a good bit slower than team-mate Carlos Sainz in the morning.
In the afternoon, however, Leclerc was able to reverse the signs and take four tenths of a second from the Spaniard, who finished third.
In addition to Sainz, Leclerc must also have Red Bull on the bill, which he believes are stronger than time indicates. “They didn’t get their lap together because Max had a bit of traffic on his fast lap. So it will be very close,” announces the Ferrari driver. “We have to get everything out of the car to start on pole.”
It was noticeable that this time the Ferrari also hopped a little wilder on the track. But that is due to the characteristics of the route. “It’s not so pleasant,” says Leclerc, but doesn’t see “porpoising” as a big problem.
“We’re working on it. So far it’s not costing us that much lap time, it’s just about comfort on the straights,” he says. “But I’m not here to have a car that’s comfortable. I’m here to have a fast car. And so far it’s looking good.”
Melbourne layout doesn’t actually benefit Ferrari
Ferrari doesn’t necessarily benefit from the new Melbourne layout: “I would have preferred the old layout for our car, but that’s only from a performance point of view,” says Leclerc, who otherwise likes the new, faster variant quite well.
“I’m only saying that because Red Bull seems to be pretty fast on the straights and we can have a few more problems,” he says. “But it is what it is. I am sure that if we have a perfect weekend, we still have the chance of a very, very good result.”
Despite the layout, Ferrari seems to be the favorite for pole position in Melbourne as well. But it may be that a new tactic will be needed in qualifying. This has to do with a special behavior of the soft tire that already occurred in Jeddah.
Sainz expects “interesting quality”
While the harder tires are more difficult to warm up, the soft feels like it’s ready for a first timed lap. “But after a round of cooldown, the soft just keeps getting faster and faster,” Sainz explains. “It has nothing to do with warming up, but is a characteristic of the tyre.”
“Even in Jeddah I felt more comfortable with used tires than with new ones,” said the Spaniard. “It’s something we need to understand and get a handle on before qualifying tomorrow.”
Theoretically, the tires could already be used briefly in the third practice session, which Sainz considers “an interesting strategy” but also “a bit too complicated”. “In the end we’ll drive out with new tires in qualifying, because that’s when the new tires are available to you,” he says. “But we’ll see what the best plan is.”
“I have the feeling that it will therefore be an interesting qualification, similar to Jeddah. And as always, the softer tire compounds are a bit more difficult,” said the Ferrari driver. “It makes things a bit trickier because it’s difficult to understand these new cars and it’s difficult to understand the new tyres.”