The early verdict on Leclerc's Ferrari brake experiment
Charles Leclerc was conducting an important experiment during practice day at Formula 1’s Barcelona Grand Prix with his switch from Brembo to Carbon Industrie brake discs.
Leclerc hoped switching to the CI discs that team-mate Lewis Hamilton had moved onto from the Japanese GP onwards would give Leclerc a better feeling when slowing down his SF-26.
Especially after his Monaco crash at the last race, where he said three of his four brakes weren't working and confirmed the switch to Hamilton's configuration for Barcelona in the aftermath.
He sampled them on Friday and the early verdict appears to be positive, according to Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur.
“It's not so many laps because you have to do push, cool, cool, push…but it went well,” Vasseur said.
When asked if Leclerc would be sticking with the CI brake discs for the remainder of the weekend, Vasseur indicated he would.
There aren’t monumental differences between Brembo and CI brake discs, but there are subtle ones which can have a big impact on performance - as ex-F1 technical director Gary Anderson explained here.
Leclerc ended up fourth fastest in FP2, 0.373 seconds off the pace, as Ferrari debuted a new eight-part upgrade. His long-run pace looked more encouraging, second only to the Mercedes.
“We have a few new items on the car, and we’ve made a step forward,” was Leclerc’s verdict.
“Regarding competitiveness, it’s too early to say, and I think our competitors are quite a bit ahead of us.
“We have to focus on maximising what we have now, and we will see what we can do tomorrow.”
Ferrari conducted back-to-back tests with the old and new upgrade spec through FP1 before moving both cars to the new package during FP2.
Vasseur said the “first data [is] good”, but having sat out FP1 for Dino Beganovic, Hamilton “couldn't really feel much” with only two proper laps in FP2 before the tyres gave way.
Hamilton’s best single lap was over nine tenths off Leclerc, but the straight mode on his front wing “wasn’t working”.
