Aussie’s replacement way worse; how Piastri surged past Norris amid Max threat - F1 Talking Pts
If the FIA’s clampdown on flexing front wings had an effect on McLaren’s performance, it wasn’t obvious on Friday at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri led the way like it was any other Friday this year, his orange car the best balanced and poised machine on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
While the title leader’s advantage was far from insurmountable, he held a big enough lead to justify the team’s pre-weekend confidence that Barcelona would be business as usual.
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That’s good news for McLaren, but business as usual is the last thing some teams and drivers needed.
Ferrari continues to struggle. Yuki Tsunoda remains lost at Red Bull Racing. And the grid’s newest driver, Franco Colapinto, is already under pressure despite replacing Jack Doohan only a fortnight ago.
PIT TALK PODCAST: Pole and victory for Lando Norris has cut his title deficit to Oscar Piastri to just three points, and his most comprehensive performance in months could be the turning point he needs in the championship fight.
McLAREN STILL ON TOP — BUT THE MARGINS ARE TIGHT
After a week of talk about Lando Norris’s resurgence following his Monaco triumph, Oscar Piastri made a quiet but potentially important statement on Friday in Barcelona.
His FP1 time was underwhelming, but the Australian had been trialling a new rear wing design, the fluorescent yellow flow-viz oil giving away the experiment. Back on the same spec as Norris for the evening session, he rocketed to top spot.
His margin was around 0.3 seconds to George Russell, Max Verstappen and Norris, who were all closely matched on their flying laps.
The middle sector was defining in his difference to all three, with Piastri clearly more confident through the crucial turn 10 at the end of the back straight.
That’s partly him exploiting the strengths of his car, with both Verstappen and Russell smashed through that corner, but even Norris couldn’t keep up with the Australian there despite the teammates having been neck and neck at the end of the first sector.
But there’s one significant caveat on McLaren’s advantage over Mercedes and Red Bull Racing.
The orange car clearly had its power unit turned up for Friday, given away by the fact it’s faster down the straights than all its rivals.
Eliminate that difference and the gap between the three teams is much, much smaller — in fact, after accounting for power modes, RBR and Mercedes might even have a slender edge through the fast corners, which dominate this layout.
“Our competitors look quick,” Piastri said. “I think Verstappen’s been quick all day.
“It’s going to be a tight battle tomorrow, I think.
“I think we definitely expected Red Bull to be quick, so that’s not a big surprise. We’re just trying to make the car a bit faster.”
Verstappen was perhaps tellingly upbeat at the end of the day.
“We’ve had worse Fridays!” he said. “I felt a bit happier with the car.
“We’re still not I think where we want to be, but it’s definitely a bit more positive.
“I still want a better feeling from the car, but I’ve also had Fridays where we were completely out of it. it’s a bit more in the middle.”
He was perhaps thinking of Friday in Imola, where Red Bull Racing indeed looked completely out of it only to turn things around overnight and come out swinging on Saturday.
Already starting closer to the mark, Red Bull Racing looks like a serious threat, at least for pole.
The race, however, could be a different story.
This is a warm weekend in Barcelona — warmer than anticipated, with the ambient temperature hovering above 31 degrees and the track temperature sizzling past 50 degrees.
With this being a highly demanding circuit for tyres, the weather will bring McLaren’s superior tyre management to the fore, and as much was demonstrated in the race simulation runs in FP2.
Race simulation pace
1. McLaren: fastest
2. Red Bull Racing: +0.15 seconds
3. Ferrari: +0.31 seconds
4. Mercedes: +0.41 seconds
5. Williams: +0.75 seconds
6. Alpine: +0.91 seconds
7. Racing Bulls: +0.92 seconds
8. Sauber: +0.92 seconds
9. Aston Martin: +0.96 seconds
10. Haas: +1.12 seconds
That’s not to say Red Bull Racing can’t close that gap, just as it did in Imola, when it was figured to be similarly adrift only to end up being fastest by the end of Sunday.
But there’s clearly still plenty of work for Milton Keynes to do if it’s to get back to that same place.
YUKI TSUNODA’S STRUGGLES CONTINUE
But if Red Bull Racing is set to mount a challenge, it looks unlikely to have Yuki Tsunoda in the mix to back up Verstappen.
The Japanese driver was all at sea during practice — concerning considering he’s normally a decent match for the Dutchman on Friday before losing the thread somewhere in the heat of qualifying as the pressure to extract the maximum from the car ramps up.
His best time in FP2, good enough for 13th, was 0.923 seconds off the pace and 0.613 seconds slower than Verstappen. He was also slower than both Racing Bulls drivers.
“To be honest, I just don’t have any idea why I am slow,” he admitted candidly.
“In terms of first days compared to other grands prix it felt pretty smooth. I think I made progress from FP1 to FP2.
“The lap was pretty good as well considering it was FP2 — obviously it’s not fully 100 per cent, but it’s not the gap that I was expecting.”
It’s one of the most befuddling experiences for a driver — to feel quick in the car, to execute cleanly but to discover the lap time isn’t there.
The telemetry gives little away beyond an apparent lack of confidence through key corners, with Tsunoda lifting more through turn 2 and a lot more through turn 9 onto the back straight and turn 14 onto the front straight.
“It’s hard to even tell what exact limitation I have,” he continued. “In terms of balance it’s okay. We’ll have to see what we can improve, but I’m struggling.
“Hopefully we can find something, otherwise it’s really tough.
“Honestly. It’s not like I had a massive mistake … if I made a mistake, with that result I’d be happy actually, but it’s not like that.
“I’ll try my best to find the solution, but currently it’s not really clear.”
With both McLaren drivers sure to be in the battle at the front for what’s tipped to be a two-stop race, Verstappen could end up sorely missing Tsunoda as a strategic advantage if he can’t pick up the pace.
And that will only increase the pressure on the Japanese ace to find his feet.
FERRARI REMAINS AS UNPREDICTABLE AS EVER
Last week in Monaco the difference in expectations between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton was stark.
Leclerc, now well used to being disappointed by his team, was deeply pessimistic, but Hamilton, on his first visit in Ferrari overalls to F1’s most famous circuit, was practically bouncing off the walls with anticipation.
It ended up being a decent weekend for the team, with Leclerc qualifying and finishing second. Hamilton had pace early but had his weekend undone by an FP3 crash and a grid penalty.
One week later and the positions have totally switched despite no obvious signs of encouragement from the time sheet.
Leclerc was fifth and 0.5 seconds off the pace, while Hamilton was 11th and 0.773 seconds adrift, though the Briton later said the team had found a downforce-costing problem with his car explaining the deficit.
Nonetheless, Leclerc ended the day optimistic a good weekend could be on the cards.
“It’s been a bit more positive than what we expected coming here, so that’s good,” he said. “There’s more performance in the car, which I hope we will unlock tomorrow for quali.
“There’s still quite a bit of work to be done, but I don’t think we are too far out.”
Hamilton shared none of the enthusiasm.
“Not fun,” he said. “You arrive on a Friday and you’re hoping for a good day, but then it doesn’t go well … honestly, I thought the car was going to be good today. It wasn’t too bad in FP1, but in FP2 it was quite a lot worse.
“Naturally that’s frustrating for everyone.”
How Ferrari actually performs on Saturday is therefore something of a mystery. The car seems genuinely adrift on single-lap pace, and while its race pace looks better, it doesn’t appear close enough to the front to contend for the podium.
But Ferrari has surprised — for better or worse — for much of the season. We’ll find out soon which driver’s forecast was on the money this week soon enough.
FRANCO COLAPINTO UNDER PRESSURE
An interesting story was developing at the other end of the grid, where Franco Colapinto appeared to cop a warning from de facto team principal Flavio Briatore just two rounds into his comeback.
In Spain overnight Colapinto was last in both practice sessions, and he became relatively less competitive as the day went on, slipping from 0.008 seconds off 19th place in FP1 to 0.177 seconds adrift by FP2.
More concerning — and more representative — is that he got further away from his teammate during the day, slipping from 0.784 seconds behind Pierre Gasly in FP1 to 0.918 seconds adrift in FP2.
Speaking between the sessions, Briatore initially preached patience for his young star.
“We need to wait one second to judge Franco,” he said. “We see this race.
“We need the full race. We did Monte Carlo — it was a very special race for everybody. We made a lot of mistakes in qualifying, and in Monte Carlo qualifying is the race.
“Let’s see. This is the first real race of Franco.”
But now in his third weekend, an alarming trend is beginning to form.
In five of the last six single-lap timed sessions — practice and qualifying — Colapinto has been dead last. In the sixth session — FP1 in Monaco — he was 19th but only because Lance Stroll was withdrawn with damage after just four laps and without a representative time.
If you’re looking for an answer, it might be found in Imola, his first weekend.
After a reasonable run through the practice sessions, the Argentine wrote off his car in a big crash at Tamburello at the end of Q1.
He’s been effectively last ever since.
And while Alpine has been an inconsistent performer, Gasly is a dependable benchmark, and he’s pummelled the Argentine in their two races together.
Gasly has been an average of 7.3 places ahead in practice and qualifying sessions combined. In qualifying the average margin is 0.461 seconds and 3.5 places.
In that context, what Briatore said next was telling.
“[How many] races, I don’t know, honestly,” he said “I never tell five races, three races, four races, one race — we see.
“I don’t know at this moment if Franco will stay for the season or not, but let’s see — depends on the performance.
“We’re only looking at the performance, nothing else.”
There’s a limit to what can be asked of a rookie like Colapinto, suddenly promoted to the race team and tackling Monaco in his second weekend.
But Alpine clearly has no interest in excuses like these. If it did, it wouldn’t have turfed Jack Doohan jus six races into the season.
If Colapinto is playing by the same rules, his results after two races clearly don’t cut it.
He’s also clearly falling foul of Briatore’s specific requirements to “be fast, not crash, and score points”.
No rookie should have to feel like their career could hang on the next qualifying session, but that could well be the case for Colapinto tonight.