Ferrari’s best-of-the-rest performance in the Spanish Grand Prix marked the first time in the 2021 Formula 1 season it converted its midfield-leading pace into the same result on race day.
Fourth place for Charles Leclerc and seventh for Carlos Sainz Jr also meant Ferrari finally outscored McLaren in 2021 and trimmed the gap to third place in the constructors’ championship to just five points.
McLaren finished third behind Mercedes and Red Bull last year, and it has occupied the same position in the standings since the first race in 2021, scored a podium in the second round at Imola, and been widely praised for how its season has started.
But McLaren has actually been slower than Ferrari in every qualifying session so far and finally succumbed to the Maranello team in a race at Barcelona.
So, should Ferrari be the team behind Mercedes and Red Bull that’s getting the most attention? Maybe not, given it was only 18 months ago that Ferrari was winning races, and even third-best is still further back than a team like Ferrari should be.
However, the early trend suggests that it’s Ferrari that has F1’s third-fastest car, and on the evidence of Spain there is reason to believe it can avoid last year’s pattern of a Leclerc qualifying special giving way to a slump in the race as an out-of-position Ferrari slips back to where it should be.
A core component of Ferrari’s race performance in Spain, where Leclerc even ran ahead of Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes in the opening stint, was strong tyre management.
“I don’t think there’s a big weakness like there was maybe a bit more last year on the race pace” :: Charles Leclerc
That was an area that had compromised both drivers in the season opener in Bahrain and where Sainz suffered badly in Portugal.
“Bahrain was very specific because of the overheating of the rears,” said team boss Mattia Binotto after the race at Barcelona.
“And at Portimao we made some mistakes with tyre management. But [in Spain] we were focused on that aspect and we managed it well.
“It’s good to see that in the race, we had the pace we may have in quali.
“Obviously when you’re struggling such as in Portimao there is always a lesson learned, it can be car set-up, car balance, the way you manage the tyres on track.
“So we made the analysis of all the data we had, discussed it then with the drivers, sharing with them the solution or what may be the actions and I think coming here, we tried to put in place all the possible solutions and actions.
“I think it worked pretty well.”
Binotto felt it’s not the first time Ferrari’s had strong race pace, believing it was also the case at Imola – where Leclerc also felt the team was “very strong” as he finished fourth.
He felt that he had not done a good enough job himself managing the tyres in Bahrain and says the car is stronger on one-lap pace and race pace then in 2020.
“I don’t think there’s a big weakness like there was maybe a bit more last year on the race pace,” said Leclerc.
“I feel like this year it’s a lot more balanced.”
“They are not always terrible in the races. Sometimes they can be very competitive throughout the whole race” :: Lando Norris
Ferrari actually qualified ahead of both McLarens in Spain but Sainz lost out to Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap and spent the final part of the grand prix hounding his replacement at the team.
But he felt there was a clear improvement in tyre management after his unhappy stint on mediums in Portugal, believing that Ferrari was able to maintain a “step better” pace than its midfield rivals in Spain.
“Obviously we want to understand exactly why and we will analyse this week to see why today the car was so strong,” said Sainz at the end of the race.
McLaren’s Lando Norris reckoned the pace advantage Ferrari had in Spain played a part in its improved tyre management, too.
“They were just that much quicker in the race that they could look after the tyres more than usual,” said Norris.
“I think at tracks where they are a bit slower they have to push more, they use the tyres more and so on.
“It was not a surprise. They are not always terrible in the races. Sometimes they can be very competitive throughout the whole race.
“They’re not always dropping off our tail, they’ve been quick all season, and they put it together and did a good job.”
While Ferrari also felt Barcelona was not the first time it showed strong race pace, the key difference was it was enough to trump McLaren – which was quicker in the dry at Imola, where it benefited from the red flag period that had cancelled out the gap Leclerc built up in the first half of the race.
Spain was made slightly more difficult in judging the respective performance of the two teams given McLaren’s form driver, Norris, started behind Ricciardo after a compromised qualifying.
Though Ricciardo put in his best performance of the season, he is still getting used to his new surroundings and admits he is not producing the cleanest races.
Sainz had to pass Norris on track but was aided by fresher tyres on a different strategy.
But he felt Ferrari had a fundamental advantage over McLaren in Spain even though he couldn’t utilise it when he came across Ricciardo.
“I had a 15-20 lap tyre delta to Norris which made the overtaking a lot easier than what it was to Ricciardo because we had the same tyres, same age of tyre,” said Sainz.
“Compared to the McLaren we were at least two or three tenths faster per lap. But with the dirty air of these cars, you need to be more than a second [faster] than the car in front to be even able to do a move on someone.
“So those three or four tenths advantage that I had on pace to Ricciardo was not enough to go side by side with him into Turn 1.
“It is something we’re trying to also improve, the top speed, and hopefully we can be better at it later in the year.”
McLaren conceded after the race that it was simply not at Ferrari’s level at Barcelona.
“It wasn’t a surprise, they’ve had a good car all year and we knew about their strength on a track like this with this layout,” admitted McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl.
Binotto believes Ferrari has a performance edge in slow-speed corners, even if it is not a significant advantage, and that was shown by the two teams’ pace in the final sector at Barcelona.
Norris and Ricciardo have both reported the McLaren is slightly nervous at the rear, which Norris said is exaggerated at certain tracks and conditions.
“The times we’ve suffered more with the rear end of the car, like Portugal and Spain, it’s when Ferrari are a lot more competitive and we are not as competitive,” Norris said.
“But when the car is not struggling with the rear then we are much stronger. Places like Imola for example.
“We know where we have to work on as a team with the car side of things and that will make our lives much easier.
“We need some rear grip and to be able to lean on the car a bit, so that’s the aim.”
Much like the lead fight between Mercedes and Red Bull, two teams whose cars have different characteristics, this could be a battle that ebbs and flows through the year.
“It’s a very tight battle especially with Ferrari,” said Seidl.
“And it’s important to make sure we keep bringing upgrades to the car in the next races in order to keep this battle for P3 alive.
“It’s good that we’re still in P3 despite struggling this weekend compared to them and I’m expecting a season-long battle with them.”
