Sebastian Vettel was knocked out in Q2 again at the Spanish Grand Prix as his struggles continued – but ultimately his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc fared little better and will start just two places ahead in ninth.
Struggling with the front end mid-corner and saying the car got worse as the session progressed, Leclerc declared himself “just not happy” while Vettel said he was battling with a nervous rear end in the middle sector and still had “some things I can’t really put an answer to”.
Leclerc has managed to get Ferrari onto the podium twice this year and contribute 45 of the 55 points that have kept it third in the constructors’ championship.
But are row four/five starts on a track that’s not even as power-sensitive as others coming up on the calendar the reality Ferrari’s now stuck in?
Leclerc can handle this situation better
– Scott Mitchell
Leclerc has wrung every drop of performance out of the SF1000 over the last couple of races, but he’s not a miracle-worker.
His brilliance at Silverstone, and most of Vettel’s struggle, was a consequence of Ferrari’s low-drag set-up.
Leclerc was able to maximise that over one lap and then drove superbly in the race to use his hard-earned track position to good effect.
Winning that track position isn’t as easy when the downforce levels need to be cranked up. Ferrari’s not got the straightline speed to facilitate it.
So what we’re seeing here is Ferrari reverting to the mean and Leclerc dropping with it.
Vettel’s not done a bad job in that context, he just can’t get as much out of this car as Leclerc.
This reaffirms a picture that was already pretty clear at Silverstone. It also proves that the chassis change really was simply a sensible thing to try, rather than to cure a massive performance problem on Seb’s side.
Two places back from Leclerc isn’t the end of the world for Vettel but missing out on a return to Q3 by just a few thousandths of a second will sting.
This all comes down to engine directives
– Mark Hughes
Ferrari’s 2021 season has been defined by the technical directives that have impacted so negatively upon its engine power. Maybe even its 2022 season too.
The SF1000 was conceived before these rulings as a higher downforce car than its low-drag predecessor of last year – so is almost certainly going to have been pitched in the wrong part of that downforce/drag trade-off for the engine power it actually has, as opposed to what Ferrari was expecting to have when it made those basic design choices.
That basic shortfall is here to stay, for this season at the very least. There’s no reason why it should be otherwise.
So on a good day, at the right sort of track, Leclerc can put it in the top six on the grid and pick up the odd opportunistic podium. Just like any of the Racing Point/McLaren/Renault group.
The expected new rulings on engine modes may close down Ferrari’s qualifying shortfall to Racing Point in particular, but won’t fundamentally alter its position in the hierarchy.
That F1’s pandemic-inspired measures on engine freezes and postponing of the new formula should occur on top of the earlier tech directives has just hampered Ferrari even further – and its private agreement with the FIA (which resolved the investigation into its 2019 power unit) may well have precluded it from putting up a stiffer fight on preventing those measures being passed.
All its current difficulties can be traced back to the interpretation it made of the power unit regulations last year.
Proof Ferrari backed the right horse
– Edd Straw
Leclerc’s heroics are the reality Ferrari chose. Say what you will about how good Vettel has been in the past, while the wider circumstances are clearly holding him back, the relative performance of the two Ferraris surely vindicates the decision to make Leclerc the horse the team backs.
Yes, Ferrari is struggling and that’s its big problem this season but in Leclerc it has a driver who has excelled this year (Styria lap one disaster excepted) in difficult circumstances and shown he has taken another step forwards from last year.
It’s a shame to see Vettel struggling because he’s done great things in the past and it’s wrong to suggest his great success was down to luck.
But in Leclerc, Ferrari has a driver with a wider operating window who likely has many years of excelling for the team ahead of him.
Whether your car is fighting for pole position or just to reach Q3, for wins or minor points, Leclerc’s form vindicates the choice made.
Now, Ferrari needs to get its act together engine wise and give Leclerc the performance he needs.
Ferrari needs engine mode rule change
– Gary Anderson
Qualifying is the first time over a race weekend that you know everyone is pushing to the limit. Other than the works Mercedes team, everyone else will definitely be using a bit if not all of their extra power modes and there’s no doubt Ferrari will be using everything it has got. And right now, it’s not enough.
Look at the data from the Spanish GP session:
Q1
Hamilton fastest
Leclerc +0.500%, Vettel +0.912% (that’s +0.412% slower than Leclerc)
Q2
Hamilton fastest
Leclerc +1.237%, Vettel +1.519% (+0.283% slower than Leclerc)
Q3
Hamilton fastest
Leclerc +1.989% (Vettel didn’t make it)
So from that I would say that Ferrari was giving it full beans all the way through qualifying. Mercedes turned the knob up for Q2 and Ferrari had nothing left to respond with.
As far as Leclerc versus Vettel is concerned the average gap in Q1 and Q2 was 0.35%, which to be honest is probably just about where it is. Vettel hasn’t lost his ability, but at the moment he has lost his mental focus.
In turn, this means he has lost his confidence, He doesn’t like a nervous car, which Leclerc lives with, very similar to the situation at Red Bull with Max Verstappen and Alex Albon.
