(Motorsport-Total.com) – Ferrari may have gained a decisive strategic advantage for the Dutch Grand Prix with an unusual tire experiment in the sprint. Charles Leclerc started as one of the few drivers on a new soft tire, while the majority of the field opted for mediums.
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The risk paid off at least partially: Leclerc showed a strong race pace and was even able to overtake Lando Norris towards the end of the sprint. At the same time, Ferrari gathered valuable information about the behavior of the softest tire over a longer distance.
For McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, it is therefore not yet clear how much Ferrari can actually benefit from this attempt on Sunday. “When we saw that Leclerc was starting on a new soft tire, we initially thought that was quite ambitious,” says Stella.
However, Ferrari must have gained enough confidence in the decision through the data from the practice runs. And exactly this data could now become interesting for all teams.
“Leclerc was probably the fastest”
Because Ferrari was already noticeably strong in the long runs during the first practice. Stella explicitly highlights the consistent lap times of the Scuderia. “Ferrari’s lap times over several consecutive laps in the first free practice were the best,” explains the McLaren team principal.
Leclerc also showed an impressive pace in the sprint itself. Stella even goes a step further: “Leclerc was probably still the best in terms of pace during the race.”
However, this raises the crucial question: Was the Ferrari really that fast – or did the soft tire make the difference? McLaren cannot yet clearly answer this. “I’m not sure if it’s related to the soft tires or simply that Ferrari has the fastest car in terms of race pace,” says Stella.
For the competition, this is an uncomfortable starting position. Because if Ferrari’s strong pace is actually based on the car’s performance, the Scuderia could be very strong on Sunday regardless of tire choice. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc start only from fifth and sixth places, respectively.
Zandvoort makes overtaking especially valuable
The strategic importance is particularly high in Zandvoort. The Dutch circuit offers only limited opportunities to regain positions on track. A strategic mistake can therefore be much harder to correct than on a track with several long straights and heavy braking zones.
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That is exactly why tire choice is so important. Ferrari was able to show through Leclerc’s sprint how the soft tire behaves in race conditions. The other teams now have to decide how much weight to give this test.
“All teams will look at Leclerc’s run and try to find out: Was it the car or do we need to consider something in the strategy?” explains Stella. For McLaren, this mainly means: The data is valuable – but not yet clear enough to automatically derive a strategy from it.
McLaren deliberately sacrificed tires in qualifying
Also interesting is what Stella reveals about their own tire usage. McLaren deliberately set a different focus in qualifying. “In our case, we thought it was important to maximize the starting position in qualifying,” explains Stella.
Therefore, McLaren compared different options in Q2: Does the tire need to be prepared with an additional warm-up lap before the fast lap – or does a direct attack also work? This decision could become relevant for the race.
Because whoever saves as many tires as possible for the Grand Prix in qualifying has more strategic options on Sunday. Those who sacrifice tires to achieve a better starting position may initially be better off on track but lose flexibility during the race.
Stella therefore hints that the tire usage of teams in qualifying might already indicate which strategic approaches they are pursuing for the race. “If you look at tire usage in qualifying, that could give a clue about what the teams are thinking,” he says.
Even if a one-stop race is generally expected, Ferrari could have a small advantage with this. Leclerc has not only shown that the soft tire can work over the distance, but Ferrari also has additional insights that other teams lack.
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