Charles Leclerc won the Austrian GP, but his success began to materialize towards the end of Saturday’s sprint race, while interviews were being held with the top three on the finish straight, at which point both he and Carlos Sainz Jr They went to look at the tires on Max Verstappen’s car.
Saturday’s image showed a completely defeated Ferrari at the home of Red Bull and it seemed easy to predict a race in which Verstappen would not suffer in the slightest.
But in the end, that was not the case: Leclerc dominated with an iron fist at the wheel of a Ferrari that seemed to be back to what it was at the beginning of the year, when they surpassed the Austrians thanks largely to their good tire management.
So how is it possible that the situation changed so much in one day? Sainz and Leclerc realized in the parc fermé of the sprint race that the wear of the Red Bull tires had been much higher than that of the F1-75 and they pointed this out to the Cavallino’s engineers.
It may not have been significant, but both drivers were able to realize it and, analyzing the data, they came to the conclusion that on Sunday, with a full tank (106 kg of petrol), the degradation of the RB18 would be even worse.
Adrian Newey ‘s car has a virtue: after two or three laps the temperature of the tires shoots up, which makes them enter the proper operating window very quickly, giving its drivers the opportunity to open a gap so as not to have problems when their pursuers can open the DRS.
But thanks to the mischief of Sainz and Leclerc , the staff in charge of Iñaki Rueda , the Cavallino ‘s head of strategy, quickly launched a simulation with slightly different data than what had been stored to date.
To improve the corner entry of the F1-75 and correct the slight understeer, they increased the incidence of the front wing, which had perhaps been too unloaded on Saturday, to clearly help the tyres, without losing much in top speed.
The challenge was to bet everything on Red Bull ‘s performance drop regardless of what ‘shoes’ Verstappen wore during the race, something that ultimately paid off.
The slight drop in temperature (three degrees compared to the race) benefited those from Maranello , putting the icing on a Sunday that could raise spirits in Italy. Leclerc took care of the rest with extraordinary race management, overtaking Max up to three times on track.
The Monegasque put pressure on his rival from the beginning, forcing him to maintain a pace that made his tires collapse earlier than expected, destroying Red Bull’s plans, which at no time saw this situation coming.
There is no doubt that Red Bull did something wrong, but it is also true that Ferrari has shown that the team is ready to come back, in a weekend that, if it had rewarded the Milton Keynes team, would have given a clear direction to the world.
Above all, the solidity of a team that is managing to evolve its single-seater at the pace of the RB18 stands out, but contributing fewer novelties. And, above all, that he begins to know how to take advantage of his opportunities when they arise, after having left too many along the way.
Christian Horner said the title battle could start to settle at Monza, although he acknowledged he sees Red Bull one step ahead, while Mattia Binotto said he was expecting a very close season until the final race.
