This season everyone is used to Ferrari drivers, especially Charles Leclerc, driving excellent qualifying and regularly claiming pole position. No wonder Leclerc and Carlos Sainz started 12 times from the top positions in 20 races. But in the Mexican Grand Prix they only start fifth and seventh, and the Spaniard managed to stay ahead of his partner.
According to Auto Motor und Sport, the mighty Ferrari power station at 2,238 m above sea level is no longer as efficient as competing engines, also because the geometric dimensions of the turbine are somewhat smaller. Under normal circumstances this does not manifest itself in any way, but in Mexico it becomes a problem and to reduce the load on the turbo, Ferrari is forced to reduce the power a bit.
Of the 22 championship courses, only three are noticeable above sea level, and the Mexican one is mainly located, but Ferrari doesn’t have such problems on all the others. The team understands this and should of course not be surprised at the difficulties that arise. Sainz and Leclerc’s F1-75 wings have been modified to have a lower angle of attack compared to their rivals, but in terms of maximum speed, the red cars were only on the 12th and 16th lines of the corresponding rating. Only in the first sector, which consists mainly of straights, did the Scuderia drivers lose up to 0.5 second.
Carlos hinted that the team understands the reasons for this, saying: “We understand why we are going slow and what compromises we have to make, but in reality everything turned out to be even more difficult than we expected.”
To at least somewhat compensate for the lack of speed on the straights, Ferrari reduced the level of downforce, and this led to the cars starting to slide more. The rubber overheats and finding the right balance is much more difficult.
Both riders complained of understeer in slow corners and oversteer in fast parts of the lap. The car bounced too much on the curbs and it was felt that Leclerc and Sainz were steering less confidently than usual.
In any case, their job is to reach the finish line and show the best possible results, as Mercedes gradually regains the gap on the Italian team. The two teams are still 53 points apart, but if Ferrari fails to minimize potential losses in Mexico, the battle for second place in the Constructors’ Championship will seriously escalate.
Source: F1 News
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