Is Ferrari’s upgraded floor the indirect cause of Charles Leclerc’s latest DNF? F1 TECH...

Statistically speaking, Ferrari have the best car on the grid with the F1-75 able to be competitive on every track so far this season in 2022, particularly on mid to high downforce ones.
Charles Leclerc (MON)
Charles Leclerc (MON)

Since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari’s 2022 challenger proved to be very strong in qualifying, where the true performance of a car is shown, but often showed weakness on race day, especially with tyre management, efficiency at high-speed and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:porpoising.

Throughout the season, Ferrari’s engineers back at Maranello understood the weak ꦉpoints of the F1-75 and thus introduced upgrades♛ in the subsequent races after Bahrain.

Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari F1-75. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona, Spain, Race
Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari F1-75. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix,…

Tyre management was improved with the introduction of a new floor in Spa𝔍in, while its efficiency on the straights was solved with a new rear wing in Montreal.

Finally, the porpoising problem was rectified with Ferrari’s latest floor upg🍃rade at ꦰthe French Grand Prix.

Assessing Ferrari’s latest upgrade, it was characterised by a bigger section of the first part of the ve🐈nturi’s tunnel, able to increase the amount of air under the car, in order to create more downforce and eradicate the porpoising effect.

Remote video URL

However, a floor that generate꧅s more downforce gives the potential to drive with a higher minimum speed than a car with🦹 less downforce - like the Red Bull.

More speed means more energy on the tyres, combined with the higher track temperatures at the Circuit Paul Ricard, front tyre degradation was going to be an issue for cars with more downfo⛦rce such as Ferrari.

Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari F1-75. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 12, French Grand Prix, Paul Ricard, France, Race
Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari F1-75. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 12, French Grand Prix,…

For this season, at Paul Ricard, Ferrari w❀ere forced to ad๊opt a particular set-up on their cars, with a very strong front-end (to avoid understeer and not generate high temperatures on the front tyres) and a lazy rear, thus creating more oversteer that had to be managed by the drivers.

The setup created some difficulties for Charles Leclerc in the opening laps of the race but later allowed him to manage the tyres better than the Red Bulls - Sainz’s recovery drive also showed this - and to ope💎n a gap up to Verstappen at the end of the first stint, even with worn medium t🍌yres.

Verstappen pitted at the end of Lওap 16 as Red Bull tried to undercut Leclerc, forcing the Ferrari driver to push for the suℱbsequent two laps.

Looking at the gap, Leclerc would have likely lost the lead had he stopped at the end of Lap 18 but it was too late as he lost control of his car at Turn 11, t🎃he long-right-hand corner after Signes, ending in the barrier.

Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari F1-75. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 12, French Grand Prix, Paul Ricard, France, Race
Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari F1-75. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 12, French Grand Prix,…

Reflecting on the crash itself, it’s poss🥂🦩ible to see that in the first part of the corner, Leclerc managed to take it with a very pointed front end but through the corner, the lazy rear didn’t follow it and thus there was a huge oversteer moment for him that he wasn’t able to control, crashing into the barriers as a result.

Of course, it is really difficult to𒈔 say what are the real reasons for the crash, even if it’s quite clear that it was just caused by a human mistake, admitted by Leclerc himself afterwards.

Analysing the Ferrari onboards in the first part of th💙e race, we can safely say the behaviour of the F1-75 didn't help Leclerc avoid a tragic end to the French GP.

While the link might not be direct🐈, could it be possible to say that Leclerc’s crash may have been indirectly caused by Ferrari’s new upgrades?

Read More