The second round of a season that promises to be under the banner of the Ferrari-Red Bull challenge has certainly not betrayed expectations. The duel staged in Jeddah between the reigning world champion and the horse rider has condensed all the essence of Formula 1, the same that over the years has influenced and captivated entire generations of fans. Even more than the direct back-and-forth between Verstappen and Leclerc, facilitated by excessive use of the DRS to the point of debasing the emphasis of overtaking maneuvers, the great show was embodied by the prolonged chase between the two duelists. Max and Charles always drove to the limit, constantly surpassing themselves with an uninterrupted succession of fast laps, managing power oversteers, touching and in some cases touching the walls of Jeddah, giving free expression to their driving skills on the challenging and dangerous Arab track. Despite the recent changes, the Saudi track proves to be unsuitable for guaranteeing acceptable safety for the pilots, with the risk that a violent impact against the barriers will result in a return to the trajectory, with poor visibility for those who arrive. All this generates apprehension, but above all regret, as if the same layout had been made in the form of a permanent circuit, with gravel and grass on the track to replace the barriers, it would have resulted in one of the best systems to come out of Hermann Tilke’s pen, without debasing its interpretation behind the wheel.
Returning to the competitive aspect, the challenge between Verstappen and Leclerc was the direct consequence of the exceptional work done by the respective teams. One of the qualities that contributed most to Red Bull’s victory was the impressive straight-line speed of the RB18, at the basis of which three factors can be identified. In the first place, Milton Keynes’s car already in Bahrain had expressed higher extension speeds, denoting a high aerodynamic efficiency of the car body, that is to say a low drag in relation to the load released. Then there is the behavior of the ex-Honda power unit: the environment agrees that Ferrari engines benefit from a higher peak power, which however is not the only quality that determines the goodness of modern hybrid engines. The Honda unit developed for 2021 already denoted an excellent capacity for energy regeneration from the MGU-H coupled to the turbocharger. Sakura’s technicians had admittedly sacrificed part of the combustion efficiency of the comburent, so as to have more residual energy in the exhaust gases that could be used to recharge the battery through the turbine. A distinctive feature of the Honda power unit, which guarantees high energy availability with which to power the hybrid for the entire distance of the straights, without resorting to clipping and cutting the electric power before braking. A quality that has also remained on the Red Bull rebranded 2022 engine, which helps to increase top speeds while paying for a lack in terms of absolute power and traction in the draw.
In the specific case of Jeddah, the RB18 proved to be impregnable on the straight also thanks to the set-up choices, particularly unloaded on both cars. Red Bull led to Saudi Arabia a low load package which also included a smaller beam-wing, investing additional resources among those granted by the budget cap. On Friday Verstappen and Perez tried two different configurations for the rear wing, and then conformed to the lighter solution and rejected the aileron used in Bahrain. The Anglo-Austrian car was noticeably slower in corners than the Red, denoting a significantly lower level of aerodynamic downforce which suggested some gaps in tire management in the race. However, after some difficulties glimpsed with a full tank of fuel in the early stages of the Grand Prix, with more discharged cars and harder compounds, the wear turned out to be less than expected. However, it should also be noted that, net of the aerodynamic set-up, Red Bull is able to fully express its potential in the race even more than in qualifying. In fact, both in Bahrain and in Jeddah Verstappen complained of not a few difficulties in getting the front axle up to temperature, accentuated by the team’s chosen exhaust set-ups, a recurring feature in Red Bulls in recent years and which limits competitiveness in qualifying. Once the tires have warmed up, in the race the RB18 manages to make the most of its aerodynamic, mechanical and chassis qualities, with the Dutchman also showing a better stabilization of tire pressures.
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Red Bull is therefore called upon to work to stem the problem, which however is not the only one. In Jeddah, the RB18 debuted larger air intakes for the front brakes after the overheating suffered in Bahrain. Although the Arab track was less challenging due to the temperatures of the plant, both for the high average speeds and for the presence of a few deep braking sections, the Anglo-Austrian cars were not exempt from critical issues in thermal management, which could become a limiting factor. on more challenging tracks for the brakes. Then there is the alarm bell about the reliability of the power units: after the three retirements in Sakhir, in Jeddah it was necessary to replace the turbo and MGU-H on Perez’s car, while Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri was unable to start the race due to technical problems. Therefore, there are several signs of precarious reliability of the ex-Honda units, a potentially decisive aspect in a world championship key.
An overly charged Red
The Monday morning coffee in Maranello will have had a bittersweet aftertaste. On the one hand, the bitterness for a near-miss victory even for some lucky few episodes, which is contrasted by the awareness that the F1-75 was able to compete on an equal footing on a track more congenial to the excellent speed skills of Red Bull. . Ferrari also collected a substantial haul of points on a track where pitfalls are always around the corner. The Red has proved to be a car with multiple resources, while highlighting some margins of intervention, both at a technical and methodological level.
In fact, Mattia Binotto admitted to the German press that the team opted for an excessively loaded set-up, in anticipation of a level of tire wear in the race which later turned out to be lower than expected. The F1-75 thus served a speed duty on the straight that was not compensated by a superiority on the race pace, also compromising the possibilities of attack and defense in close duels with Red Bull. Failure to simulate race pace in FP2 on Friday afternoon limited the collection of data on actual tire wear, but the final choice on the set-up was perhaps also conditioned by past experiences. In fact, in the first half of 2021 Ferrari tended to adopt low-load setups bordering on the extreme, so as to compensate for the lack of cavalry from the power unit, however suffering a high degradation in the race. The disastrous race of Paul Ricard, strongly conditioned by the graining, had led to a change of course, with the Reds using higher load levels in the second half of the season to preserve their long-distance pace. Although with a radically different car, the concern of Ferrari technicians not to incur again in Jeddah transpired. graining, influencing the final resolution on the set-up. Then there is the counterintuitive behavior of the F1-75 in Saudi Arabia, which it suffered from in qualifying oversteer whenever new tires are fittedexpressing a better competitiveness on the flying lap with used tires.
Overall, both Red Bull and Ferrari have shown they can aspire to victory both on a track front-limited, such as the Arab one, which on the Bahraini track that best enhances the traction qualities and stability of the rear. Other types of tracks are still missing, with different balancing needs and where the speed in extension will be less decisive, but Gedda and Sakhir have nevertheless offered a significant spectrum of cases which suggests that both cars can have equal world championship ambitions. It is also pleasant to see how the RB18 and the F1-75 are profoundly different cars and each with qualities opposed to its rival, which however compensate each other overall and help revive the dynamics of direct challenges on the track.
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