The long high-speed corners of Barcelona worked against the Ferrari just as surely as they helped the Red Bull and Mercedes. Running a much skinnier rear wing than either of those cars (or the Aston) flattered its single lap pace. But even though Sainz was on the front row, Ferrari’s qualifying deficit to pole was actually the second-biggest of the season to date. Only in Melbourne was it further away. Such are its traits, it was always going to struggle around Barcelona with its long high-speed corners and heavy tyre degradation. It would have been further off the qualifying pace had it used more wing, but perhaps better in the race.
Fast corners are not the car’s forte. Last year they were but there was a deliberate trade-off of that for straightline speed with this car. That seemed a questionable shift when they announced it at the launch and even more so now. There’s a story it was because the boss Benedetto Vigna didn’t like the idea that the Ferrari was always slower on the straight than the Red Bull last year, that it was ‘inappropriate’ for Ferrari’s image… For the team’s sake, one must hope that is not true, and that a crucial part of the technical concept has not been influenced by ‘image’. Regardless, because of where the Ferrari’s aero efficiencies are, around Barcelona its lap time does not respond as well to more wing than other cars. But in Montreal there is no high-speed corner demand and as such its suspension can probably be run softer, which might be expected to regain the car the great low-speed corner performance it showed in Baku and Miami. There’s every reason to believe it will be in much better shape in Canada than it was in Spain.
Scuderia is still lacking on the straights too
Ferrari
Aston Martin’s performance was unusually low-key in Barcelona, but may have looked very different had Fernando Alonso not damaged his floor on his out-lap at the beginning of qualifying. Even with the car compromised in this way, he might have pipped Sainz for that front row grid slot but for a small lock-up on his final Q3 lap. That defined his weekend, behind team-mate Lance Stroll throughout and with the car not reacting well to the soft tyre used for the first two stints. Given that it’s been among the best cars in how it uses its tyres in previous races, Barcelona was the outlier and there’s no reason to suppose it won’t be competing hard for the status of best non-Red Bull in races to come. There’s also a significant upgrade to the car expected for Montreal.
Expect the variation of the competitive order behind Verstappen to continue.