Formula 1 lands on the splendid track of Suzuka and gives us a first day full of ideas, although, it must be said, not always exciting. In general terms, somewhat as expected, the Honda track, which has always been super technical and interesting, also highlighted the difficulties of these new cars, partly due to the lack of load in the first sector, but above all due to the many sections where the power is lacking and the braking is decidedly less aggressive than it is nice to see, not to mention, obviously, the slowdown of almost 60 km/h in the transition to the very famous 130R. In the hope that in the long break following the Japanese Grand Prix interventions will be planned to minimize these critical issues, let’s focus on the values on the track, because there are elements of objective interest.
Has McLaren found the Power Unit instructions? A few caveats
Seeing Piastri at the top of the standings immediately raises the question of whether the Woking team has finally understood how to make the most of the Mercedes power unit and the impression is that on the flying lap the progress of the engineers led by Andrea Stella is notable.
Looking at the data we first see one truly explosive power of the MCL40 in the first straight, where Piastri makes a huge difference over everyone else. Overall, throughout the session we saw a papaya car capable of making the most of its energy, especially in the stretch from the last chicane to the first corner, albeit split in two between the start and end of the lap. The gap opened by Piastri on Antonelli, first of the two Mercedes, at the exit of turns 1-2 is actually around four tenths, with the Mercedes itself showing a very conservative attitude in the first sprint throughout the session. From the entrance to the “Snake” section onwards, it is Antonelli who immediately recovers the gapto the point of almost canceling it at the hairpin. In the slow turn 11 and then in the stretch up to Spoon, however, it is the Australian who extends his lead again, showing good traction in his car. The enormous recovery in the long back straight is not enough for Antonelli to grab the first position because once again, exiting the triangle chicane, the McLaren shows a better performancewith Piastri finishing in front thanks to the tenth found in the final stretch. Overall, McLaren shows notable progress in energy management and understanding of the Power Unit, although it uses it in a very different way than Mercedes. Piastri appeared particularly fit, as we hadn’t seen him for a long time, but it cannot be said that the technical difficulties disappeared as if by magic in the McLaren garage, with World Champion Norris having to give up about half the session due to major problems with the propulsion unit. The solidity of McLaren seemed to fail, at least in part, on the race pace front and this is further confirmation of the work on the Mercedes Power Unit, which in fact opens the gap with its rivals especially in the qualifying sessions.
Mercedes already has a set-up in place, to be optimized on the energy front
The one who certainly started off on the right foot was La Mercedes, which already appeared in its ideal operating window from the point of view of the overall set-up of the car. It is clear from the data that in the snake section Antonelli’s pace is unstoppable for his opponents, all supported by very high levels of torque in delicate points, such as the entrance to turn 3 or the climb to turn 7, up to the extension before the Spoon. The Mercedes advantage was then evident on the home straight with the highest top speed (331) and the speed at the braking point of the last chicane still higher (278), demonstrating the usual advantage in the super clipping phase. For now, the Brackley side is lacking a release of energy superior to their opponents on the main straight, we’ll see if this is something that will change in view of qualifying.
Ferrari in difficulty: the engine is missing and the balance is not optimal, but you can fight on race pace
The one who apparently seems to have taken a step back compared to the last few races is the Cavallino team. The set-up brought to the track on the SF-26 did not prove to be up to par with its rivals. The rear of the car was unstable for the entire session and this compromised performance even in the purely chassis sections where the red car hoped to prevail. In the snake, Leclerc’s performance is similar to that of McLaren but decidedly inferior to that of Mercedesalthough the most important shot of the latter is precisely at turn 7 uphill. In the central section of the track Leclerc recovers and comes close to Piastri at the hairpin, but from then on the great criticality of the red emerges on the Power Unit issue, with around half a second left on the track by the Monegasque compared to Piastri throughout the subsequent stretch of pure power. Looking at the repetition of the passages, the impression is one notable lack of thrust from the red enginewhich this time is combined with a basic balance that is certainly not optimal, opening the gap up to the 7-8 tenths seen on the track. The impression is also of an excessive aggressiveness of the SF-26 on the soft tyre, which led the Ferrari duo to struggle with a marked overheating of the soft compounds on the flying lap, which instead appeared much more manageable on the medium and hard compounds at race pace. There is room for improvement on the set-up side, e.g Leclerc and Hamilton’s objective is certainly to confirm themselves as second force, ahead of McLarenat least as far as race pace is concerned, given that on the flying lap it doesn’t seem entirely easy for the SF-26 to keep up with the McLaren, a situation that appeared much more favorable in the short pace simulation carried out. We will therefore see if McLaren will try to compete for a front row seat with Mercedes, and who between Antonelli and Russell will be Wolff’s first standard bearer this weekend. On the other hand, it will be interesting to note from the third free practice whether Ferrari will have found a better set-up that will allow it to overtake the McLaren duo.
