Another piece on Ferrari? Go on then.
Laps 17–19 produced a masterclass in racing defence from Charles Leclerc as he successfully held off a relentless attack from the reigning world champ Max Verstappen, all without inchident.¹
Here’s some clips if you haven’t had a chance to see it.
Turn 1 was already seeing it’s fair share of drama, with multiple drivers (including 7-time champ Hamilton) struggling to nail the tight right-hander on cold tyres fresh from the pits.
Setting the scene, after a textbook undercut, Max slashed the deficit to Charles from +3secs to within DRS range with a roaring first 2 laps of the 2nd stint. Charles had to pull something out of the bag to hold on to the lead.
Let’s have a look at the three (two and half?) instances of Bait-and-Switch.
Data once again acquired from the FastF1 package², analysed and plotted with python scripts based on tutorials by Towards F1 Analysis³.
Lap 17: Fool me Once
If you haven’t seen Charles’s POV of the move, do yourself a favour and check it out.
Coming out of T14–15 and onto the pit straight, Verstappen opens it up and quickly gains on Leclerc, who pushes him to the inside, throwing up an almighty plume of sparks as the Red Bull veered over the pit exit lines. Leclerc, who has clearly done his homework, doesn’t panic and jumps on the brakes slightly early* to be behind for the DRS Detection Zone at the end of the straight, entitling him to open up his rear wing on the way to T4 later.
Max gets ahead going into T1, but has a much tighter line to take.
Leclerc whips in to follow close into T2–3. It’s at this point we give thanks to the new regulations, without which a move like this would be extremely difficult on account of the difficulty to follow. DRS opens on the straight, and along with Leclerc’s squeaky clean exit, a simple overtake to retake the lead follows. Max will have to wait for the next lap to get another bite of the cherry.
*Combined with his wider line and lower speed, Leclerc can brake later relative to Max, but earlier than the optimum for his speed and track position. Telemetry shows the racing based on relative distance, rather than time.
Looking at the onboard footage closely and gear telemetry specifically on the plot, Leclerc never even hits his top gear (8) on the main straight — implying this was his plan all along. An exemplary bit of race craft.
Lap 18: Fool me Twice
Same scenario coming out of T14–15. Only this time Leclerc has realised the winning formula. Like a matador wielding a big red Ferrari bedsheet, he gives no defence and looks to lift off/brake earlier than needed and allow the Red Bull to dive down the inside once again. Charles tucks inside into the next set of turns, the story repeats, Leclerc is just about ahead by T4.
On this lap in particular, you can see a little fine adjustment on the braking from Leclerc, just to make sure he gains DRS rights whilst still maintaining enough speed to slot in behind to make the move before T4.
Lap 19: Fool me Thrice?
This time, with probably the most obvious tell of the lot, Leclerc takes the widest possibly line and looks to brake early again goading Max, who dives down the inside only again to misjudge, overcook it and lock up for an easy exchange of P1 without Charles even needing the DRS up to T4. That’s the hat trick, ladies and gents.
All this led to an earlier-than-planned pitstop for Max a few laps later. This time, the undercut was duly anticipated and matched, Leclerc pulling away comfortably on his new mediums.
I’ve seen reports of Ferrari using a high-downforce setup compared to RBR and the telemetry certainly agrees, with Leclerc taking a higher average speed through the corner section than Max on each of the analysed laps.
Post-race, Leclerc admitted his strategy to reporters with a grin.⁴
Elsewhere on Track
Ultimately however, these shenanigans had less of an effect on the outcome of the race than initially thought, both Red Bulls suffering mechanical failures within a few laps of the finish. If they solve the issues, I’m expecting a galvanised Red Bull in Saudi Arabia this week.
Mercedes’ Power Unit customers had a nightmare start to the season, with McLaren having the biggest fall from grace. The team found themselves in a skirmish for the lower positions with Aston Martin and Williams. Mercedes themselves achieved a respectable P3 and P4, largely down to RBR’s mechanical issues.
Kevin Magnussen had a dream return to the grid, nabbing a P5 and outscoring the last 2 years worth of Haas points in just one race.
Sainz drove a solid race for P2, but still felt frustrated for not keeping up with his teammate on race pace. In my opinion, he shouldn’t worry. If his quali record against Charles is anything to go by, he’ll find himself ahead of the Monegasque a few times this season — possibly even a few poles. I really look forward to seeing what he can do from the front.
References and Footnotes
- “Just an Inchident” — https://youtu.be/L42H4vkbHYc
- FastF1 — https://github.com/theOehrly/Fast-F1
- Towards F1 Analysis — https://medium.com/towards-formula-1-analysis
- Leclerc chats strategy with autosport — https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/leclerc-explains-tactics-for-beating-verstappen-in-bahrain-gp-battles/9170962/?nrt=54
Once again, this piece relied heavily on the tutorials of Towards F1 Data Analysis as a starting point to produce the telemetry plots, with a few tweaks of my own. I encourage everyone reading this to check them out.
