Ferrari “too slow” and an unwelcome surprise for Haas: Melbourne lap time data

“We are too slow for now,” was Charles Leclerc’s verdict on a disappointing first qualifying session of the season for Ferrari.

Having topped the times on Friday, Ferrari were dismayed to find themselves the sixth-fastest team in qualifying. While that does not appear to be an accurate reflection of exactly how quick their car is, the stopwatch won’t be argued with.
“The feeling overall is not great,” Leclerc told Viaplay after qualifying. “We were struggling quite a lot with the car.

“The balance was tricky, but eventually when you start to struggle a lot with the balance it’s because you’ve got to push more than the actual limit of the car.”

Ferrari appeared to take a misstep with the SF-25 on Saturday. In Leclerc’s efforts to get on top of the car, and those of new team mate Lewis Hamilton who is still adapting to it, the pair fell short of its potential.

Leclerc abandoned his final lap after a series of errors. From his and Hamilton’s sectors it’s clear they were capable of a 1’17.4-1’17.5, instead of the 1’17.7 Leclerc managed. That would have put them in the thick of the fight for the second row, not relegated to the fourth behind a Williams and a Racing Bulls.

Teams’ performance

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McLaren demonstrated they are the team to beat, at this track at least, by emphatically claiming the front row. Their margin was slightly larger than Red Bull’s at this race last year, though they qualified first and third on that occasion (before Sergio Perez’s penalty).

As looked likely after yesterday’s running, Alpine confirmed themselves as the most improved team year-on-year at this track. However while Sauber appeared to have made the second-biggest step yesterday, they fell to sixth once qualifying was over. Curiously, all three Ferrari-powered teams made smaller gains than their rivals overnight.

Haas find themselves in the worst position, having improved their lap time year-on-year by less than three tenths of a second. The slow corners of the Bahrain International Circuit failed to show a weakness of their car, said team principal Ayao Komatsu. “We’re lacking a lot in high-speed corners and we didn’t see that coming from Bahrain testing,” he remarked, “but this is the reality currently and we need to find a solution as quickly as possible.”

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Sector times

The McLaren pair rebounded from poor first laps to produce their best times in all three sectors with their final efforts. Only one other driver put their quickest sector times together in one lap: Yuki Tsunoda, who claimed an impressive fifth.

Don’t overlook his team mate Isack Hadjar, however, who got within 0.009s of his potential best lap. However George Russell must be looking at his sector times and reflecting that Verstappen was beat-able. And in his first qualifying session at Ferrari, Hamilton left a lot of time on the table, but at least showed potential.

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Field performance

This is the fourth race weekend on the revised configuration of the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. The teams’ lap time gains have been quite consistent over that time.

How close will next year’s radically different cars get to the new benchmark set by Norris today?

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