Introduce some variables in wind conditions, load it with fuel and have it on old rubber, it tends to be slower than the Aston in particular and even the Mercedes. It is particularly tricky at medium-high speeds, sometimes surrendering grip at the rear quite suddenly. The update, which comprises also a new floor, is to address this. “It’s a bit of a new direction,” says Carlos Sainz, “leading to we believe will be the right path into developing this car and making a bit more driveable, a bit more consistent in the race. It’s a first step. But it’s not going change our life from one race to another. It’s the first step of many.
“It’s been a tough start to the season but we still have a chance of a podium every weekend. You cannot imagine the effort Maranello has made trying to bring this package forwards. It was supposed to come a lot later in the season. The whole factory has been absolutely flat out to bring it here.”
But, as with the updated Mercedes, it can only be a compromised update based around a car which was conceived as something quite different and which will have built-in limitations. Red Bull moved the game on massively over the winter and that’s what has revealed each of the Mercedes and Ferrari concepts as limited in their potential. Their ceiling had already been reached while Red Bull found a whole lot more, probably through even better control of its aero platform enabled by the new extreme anti-squat rear suspension. But the real magic, the thing which has allowed these things to be so productive on the Red Bull, is almost certainly the design of the underfloor.
Hence why Sergio Perez’s car being craned up at Monaco after he crashed it in qualifying created such interest. In fact it’s not radically different to last year’s floor – but that was already visibly much more sophisticated than those of any other car. It has some extra kick-up sections towards the rear which may help explain its extreme drag reduction when DRS is used, but otherwise clearly operates in much the same way as last year, but with better pitch/dive control from the suspension, can be run lower.
As the two teams expected to close the gap went the wrong way, so Aston Martin’s great progress with a 2022 Red Bull type of car has been made even more obvious. But in the meantime, Mercedes and Ferrari have effectively wasted a year.