FrenchGP 2021: Practices and Qualifying

[jgonzalesm6]

A little over an hour and 30 minutes at time of post for FP1.

[patrese86]

I don't know what to make of that. Obviously we were never going to be close to Mercedes or Red Bull but I'm struggling to believe we are also at the levels of Haas and Williams. See how we develop over the next 24 hours or so i guess.

[tifosi1993]

https://i.imgur.com/Jyi5dME.jpg

[wisepie]

First practice runs don't look too promising but hopefully there's plenty of room for improvement, our cars don't appear to have any more pace than the Alfas thus far. Renault/Alpine showing that Renault power is way better than ours, but strangely Aston are struggling too. Hope for a more positive FP2.:roll

[KimiBot]

It was nice weather, not so much else to say about that session.

[ferrari1.8t]

Liberty, SKY and the FIA must be ecstatic to have Merc back at 1-2. It’s not a coincidence that the directives on “bendy” wings and tire pressures have helped Merc. 2022 can’t come fast enough.

[458 Italia]

Red Bull whinging about the yellow curbs causing damage to cars if they're driven over :roll Simple solution to that, DON'T DRIVE THAT WIDE TO GO OVER THEM.

Paul Ricard is such a clinical track with no risks anyway, at least those bumps give the drivers something to think about.

[tifosi1993]

https://i.imgur.com/wpeLDya.jpg

[tifosi1993]

Long run pace looked pretty strong. Charles was the only man in 1m37's on hards when he had free air. Only Max and Bot could do 1m37's apart from Leclerc.

[20000rpm]

I think we should be happy if we can take 5th place in the race. More than that should be an achievement.

[JacKy]

I dont like this circuit at all. That blue escaping areas makes it even worse.

[Silent Bob]

Let's not be like Binotto and always wait till next year. Podiums for Ferrari. Both Leclerc and Sainz are always thinking about podiums and winning every race. Max doesn't start the race thinking he's going to finish 5th. Hamilton didn't win 7 championships and 100 wins by thinking he was going to finish the year 4th. Russel has no points in the Williams and making 3 stops in a Merc with a flat tire is no excuse for finishing a place behind Bottas who had no issues.. Just wanted to get my Brembo rant out of the way.

Hoping for a good showing from our boys this weekend even though it might be a tough race for us.

[WS6TransAm01]

I dont like this circuit at all. That blue escaping areas makes it even worse.

Same. If we are gonna race in France, I'd rather it be Magny-Cours

[KimiBot]

Let's not be like Binotto and always wait till next year. Podiums for Ferrari. Both Leclerc and Sainz are always thinking about podiums and winning every race. Max doesn't start the race thinking he's going to finish 5th. Hamilton didn't win 7 championships and 100 wins by thinking he was going to finish the year 4th. Russel has no points in the Williams and making 3 stops in a Merc with a flat tire is no excuse for finishing a place behind Bottas who had no issues.. Just wanted to get my Brembo rant out of the way.

Hoping for a good showing from our boys this weekend even though it might be a tough race for us.

I went for that, I was reading and thinking...what the...

That was funny, thanks.

[458 Italia]

Same. If we are gonna race in France, I'd rather it be Magny-Cours

Agreed.

Paul Ricard is just so sterile.

[wisepie]

Much better FP2 so there is hope that we can still look for a good points haul. Keep at it, ragazzi and stay off the kerbs!

[ntukza]

Much better FP2 so there is hope that we can still look for a good points haul. Keep at it, ragazzi and stay off the kerbs!

Wonder what the deal was with FP1. Different programme, tricky conditions or genuinely struggling? Whatever it was, hopefully FP2 is a realistic indication.

[Rob]

GP FRANCIA F1/2021 - VENERDÌ 18/06/2021
Le Castellet, 18 June 2021 – Friday at the French Grand Prix offered up the expected scenario of the two teams currently leading the championship heading up the time sheet, while the chasing pack were all very close to each other in terms of performance. Scuderia Ferrari got through its programme with no major issues and given that Le Castellet circuit does not particularly suit the characteristics of the SF21, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz being fifth and eighth fastest respectively, is in line with expectations going into this weekend.

FP1. The team split the job of tyre evaluation between the two drivers: Charles started on the Medium compound, while Carlos left the garage on Hards. Grip was fairly low and so, after a handful of laps both drivers switched to the Soft compound, with which Charles set a time of 1’34”950. Unfortunately, Carlos had a spin which ruined his tyres and so he was unable to do better than the 1’35”342 set on the Hard compound.

FP2. In the afternoon, the Monegasque and the Spaniard completed 23 and 24 laps respectively, posting the fifth and eighth fastest times. As usual, the first part of the session was spent looking for quick times over a single lap on the softest compound, before both drivers switched to evaluating the various compounds with plenty of fuel on board. There was not much difference between the Ferrari men’s lap times with Charles posting a 1’33”550 and Carlos a 1’33”698.

Programme. Tomorrow’s action begins with the third free practice session at 12 CET, which will be useful preparation for qualifying at 15. The 61st French Grand Prix to count towards the Formula 1 World Championship gets underway at the same time on Sunday.


Charles Leclerc #16
The main focus today was on car balance. The wind was very strong, which made it tricky to drive, but that was the same for everyone so we just had to try and find a good way to manage in these conditions.
In general, here things are looking more in line with what we expected compared to the last two race weekends, where we had pleasant surprises.
Our performance today was not bad and although we still have quite a bit of work to do, we made a nice recovery from FP1 and the car felt better this afternoon.
It will be important to understand how to get the tyres in the right operating window tomorrow. With the wind, we also have to find the right set-up to make sure that the car is easy to drive in qualifying. If we manage to put these two things together, I’m pretty sure we can have a decent weekend.

Carlos Sainz #55
Today was quite tricky. We knew that this layout would be challenging for us compared to some of the previous races, so today went more or less as expected. However, we are not that far away and we are reasonably pleased with the car balance.
The trickiest thing was the strong wind, which was blowing in the worst possible directions, with a head wind on the straights and a tail wind in the corners. It made the circuit challenging and slower.
The Soft and Hard tyres seem to work well, so we’ll keep working tonight to try and extract the maximum from the car tomorrow

[paolo lalli]

Turn up and compete at your best thats the name of the game for ferrari.Dont let binotto put the mocca on the boys before they even start the race.Binotto should change his tune its rather down putting constantly he is to stiff and rigid with his approach.He reminds me of lippy the lion.

[Rob]

Agreed.

Paul Ricard is just so sterile.

Its great track, but not for f1. The recent elms and gt world challenge races was amazing.

Also, they should do away with the chicane and the mistral straight for F1.

[Toothlessrage*]

I have a question,
How is race pace calculated?

[jgonzalesm6]

I have a question,
How is race pace calculated?

The LEADER determines race pace soooooo in lamens terms, you have to have a fast and reliable car. Also, if the leader determines the race pace and everyone else following the leader loses a second a lap from the leader......well.........it's not rocket science.......you either keep up with the leader or your race pace falters from lap to lap.

[Brembo]

Or when the 2nd place starter jumps ahead of the leader! No rocket science needed again! We all know; Quali is where you start not where you wind up finishing ! Hoping for another Ferrari podium!!! We are fortunate to have two drivers who really believe every race is there for them .

[20000rpm]

Tracks seems a bit more windy today for FP3. I hope it doesn't disturb our setup in a big way for quali.

[tifosi1993]

https://i.imgur.com/sn3zfiq.jpg

[tifosi1993]

I'm expecting P5 and P6 for the qualifying. P4 if either Perez or Bottas goofs up the qualifying.

[wisepie]

Strange to see Charles down in P11 when Carlos managed P3 in FP3, hope it's just a blip but it's pretty close in that middle pack.

[jgonzalesm6]

Also, they should do away with the chicane and the mistral straight for F1.

+1

[gump1480]

Looking very difficult to even get into Q3.

[jgonzalesm6]

Mick joins Yuki at the back of the grid. Unfortunate for both.

[PURE PASSION]

Are we really that bad????!!

[Warp]

Ferrari looks weak here

[JacKy]

LOL. Why the hell we running with mediums. It is very clear that we can not make it through with it.

[gump1480]

Are we really that bad????!!

Lec looking very weak on this track due to some reason

[patrese86]

LOL. Why the hell we running with mediums. It is very clear that we can not make it through with it.

We just did. You don't want to start on softs.

[stefa]

CS better than CL

[tifosi1993]

Well done to our boys. P5 and P7. Leclerc has been struggling with the front end. Sainz was mighty impressive.

[patrese86]

A good performance from our boys. Leclerc struggling with the fronts but nice to see Carlos the best of the rest.

[stefa]

Both Ferrari in front of McLarens!

[jgonzalesm6]

We've got a good race with the top 4 cars.

[tifosi1993]

https://i.imgur.com/z3jM7jS.jpg

[JacKy]

Well looks like we need more than 20+ hp engine to be able to compete. Losing so much time at fast corners.

Good job anyway.

[PURE PASSION]

Both Ferrari in front of McLarens!

:thumb
The only things that we want to see thus season!!!
Everything else is just a bonus!!!
And I really like that it's the 1st time for many many years that we actually have a very good pair of drivers.
When one is struggling a bit ,every time the other is there deliver. I think that on this one Binotto was right and it wasn't just a bad word for Vettelas many said !!!!
For many years now we had one good driver to fight fat positions and taking 110% from the car ,but the other was far behind for most of the races!!!!
I really really wish this to continue not only this year year, but more importantly next year!!!!!

[tifosi1993]

It has been said before but I'm going to say it again, it's great to finally rely on both drivers. Leclerc struggled today but Sainz delivered. This is what Ferrari needs.

For too long we had a dis-functional driver line up where Leclerc was pretty much pulling all the weight.

[WS6TransAm01]

Almost a full second behind. Ugh

[20000rpm]

Great lap by Carlos.... A bt disappointed for Charles. He struggled for the entire FP and Qual due to front end issues. Seems like the new pressure system introduced by FiA has an impact on his performance :(
But in order to maintain that place, we need to be in clear air as much as possible. We suffer a lot under dirty air as mentioned by Carlos.
Let's see how race pans out tomorrow.:clap

[tifosi1993]

Well looks like we need more than 20+ hp engine to be able to compete. Losing so much time at fast corners.

Good job anyway.

In qualifying there is nothing between the Honda and Mercedes PU. But Mercedes PU is still the engine to have during the race, it has better electrical power delivery and more fuel efficient than the Honda.

Tomorrow, keeping Norris behind will be tough. The Mercedes PU has a considerable advantage over our PU in race stint.

[jgonzalesm6]

In qualifying there is nothing between the Honda and Mercedes PU. But Mercedes PU is still the engine to have during the race, it has better electrical power delivery and more fuel efficient than the Honda.

Tomorrow, keeping Norris behind will be tough. The Mercedes PU has a considerable advantage over our PU in race stint.

Agreed. We'll see who conserves tires better during the race......Mercedes or RedBull. It's the long wheelbase vs the short wheelbase.

[JacKy]

In qualifying there is nothing between the Honda and Mercedes PU. But Mercedes PU is still the engine to have during the race, it has better electrical power delivery and more fuel efficient than the Honda.

Tomorrow, keeping Norris behind will be tough. The Mercedes PU has a considerable advantage over our PU in race stint.

True.

It feels like sf21 struggling fast change of directions and carrying speed over fast corners. Just watched verstappen’s and sainz’s onboard. The speed between Rb and Ferrari at the end of fast corners looks like humongous

[paneristi]

Ugh. Hopefully it’s not getting any worse tomorrow

Almost a full second behind. Ugh

[ntukza]

Leclerc managed to claw back a lot of time to end up about 0.1s off Sainz despite his struggles. Good job. It's sad that the team couldn't sort out his issues. How come Merc can often solve their issues quickly and we can't?

I hope we don't become sitting ducks tomorrow. Should be an interesting race. Nice to see Perez right up there. He's definitely an upgrade on Albon.

[ntukza]

Really impressive from Sainz by the way to qualify best of the rest. P5 and P7 is really not bad at all.

[chinmay]

Leclerc managed to claw back a lot of time to end up about 0.1s off Sainz despite his struggles. Good job. It's sad that the team couldn't sort out his issues. How come Merc can often solve their issues quickly and we can't?

I hope we don't become sitting ducks tomorrow. Should be an interesting race. Nice to see Perez right up there. He's definitely an upgrade on Albon.

Leclerc said he was very happy with his Q3 lap and Sainz simply did a better job.

[wisepie]

Better than expected and it's so close in that middle group, I still feel it's our lack of outright power that's our worst enemy as well as not being so good in the fast corners. Carlos did well for P5 on the grid and Charles not his usual self in P7, but not a bad show considering our car's limitations. Just hope we're not swallowed up on the straight tomorrow and tyre wear doesn't cause us nightmares.

[Cavallino]

Leclerc said he was very happy with his Q3 lap and Sainz simply did a better job.

Hopefully Leclerc set himself up more for the race, his stint on hard tyres on Friday was quite good. If so, this is a good qualifying performance. If Ferrari gets 5,6 this is a great sign.

[SS454]

2021 French GP: Post Qualifying Analysis

A pretty exciting Qualifying session around Paul Ricard. There was a lot of juggling during all three sessions, and the pace dramatically changed from lap to lap. Of course tires was a big a story. What was the best tire, proper warm up laps, was the tire better on one run, or a second run.

Red Bull look surprisingly fast. Max unsurprisingly was the man of the session and put in an incredible lap. I thought his second run in Q3 would be enough to be half a second faster than the field, but a lot of drivers found huge gains and it's a good thing Max nailed that lap, as Hamilton's second run would have been good enough for pole. It may seem like a good job by Perez to get 4th, but he was half a second off Max. Red Bull could have a very strong race with their low downforce setups, if they can keep the tires happy.

Mercedes, we have seen this movie before. Bottas looks amazing for the entire weekend, Hamilton complains about the car, then when it finally counts Hamilton puts in a great lap and Bottas starts behind him. Skysport media really wanted to push the chassis swap story, making it sound like Mercedes was unfair to Hamilton, but I don't believe any of that nonsense. It's a chassis that dominated in 2020, and the team had the option to swap to a brand new chassis, but everything tested okay and clearly the chassis looks fine. Mercedes will likely be battling for the win, but will they make mistakes? That is the more interesting question to me.

Ferrari have to be pretty happy. It really looked like the engine power hurt their laptimes, but that is to be expected. Sainz has looked amazing and he flat out has been better than his phenom teammate - Charles Leclerc, who really got it together in his last lap. Hard to judge how their race will go. They were terrible on tires in Baku, and their straight line performance in the race is worse than in qualifying. I think a podium will be difficult.

AlphaTauri has their own Mr Saturday in Pierre Gasly. Another superb performance. Their race pace hasn't always been there, so we will see if they are getting a handle on that. Yuki, another poor performance. He either does great, or does really really bad.

McLaren definitely appear to be losing ground to Ferrari. Lando has been keeping them in the game, and the Mercedes engine is still the best on the grid, so it's down to their chassis. Ricciardo is much closer to Norris than in recent races. They may have a closer fight with Alpine and Aston Martin than they do with Ferrari.

Alpine has looked pretty strong here. Alonso had a qualifying session he can be happy about, Ocon starts 11th for optimal tire choice. Their car has been quite easy on tires, so I wonder if they will be able to fire up the Hard tires in the race. I think this will be a key for them. If they can keep the tires in their operating window, they could have a very strong race. If not, they may drop like a stone.

Aston Martin, not a great day for them, but when you look closer, it was down to a matter of tenths. At least for Vettel. Lance Stroll ate a bit of bad luck. Could be fun watching both drivers try to battle their way forward in the race.

Alfa Romeo should be happy with Giovinazzi's day. P13 is very good on a proper circuit like Paul Ricard. Their car is good enough to finish ahead of both Williams and Haas at this point.

Williams, same story. Russell does great in qualifying, just a couple tenths off of Vettel to put it in perspective. Though he still only starts 14th, Latifi in 16th, and likely will be pushing hard to finish ahead of the Haas rookies.

Haas and Mick Schumacher get their first Q2 showing, though bitter sweet since Mick binned it in the wall. Everyone keeps making fun of Mazepin for spinning out, but Schumacher has crashed badly several times over the last 3 races. His performances are strong, but he's racking up a heck of a bill for the team.

Paul Ricard hasn't proved to be a great track for F1 races, so let's hope the tire characteristics, and the close performance between Mercedes and Verstappen keep things exciting.

[Rob]

Carlos Sainz #55

Not a bad day for the team. After a couple of eventful Saturdays, it’s good to have a clean quali like today. We managed to extract everything out of the car and show the progress we have made at this type of track. From my side, I continue to adapt and learn from the different conditions and corners, and today I felt at home with the car no matter what compound I was on.
We are in a good position for the race tomorrow and we’ll try to maximize every opportunity. Yesterday our race pace was not bad, but I expect a tight battle with our main competitors. A clean first lap and a good strategy will be essential to leave France with a good result.

Charles Leclerc #16

A tricky qualifying from my side. I didn’t do a good job of driving around the balance limitation of my car, which was on the front for me today. I will work to understand how I can adapt my driving style and manage this better in the race, although I think that we will feel it less tomorrow.
Overall, 5th and 7th place are good results for the team and in line with our expectations. Congratulations to everyone and to Carlos who did a good job today. The race pace wasn’t too bad yesterday. There is definitely potential to fight for good positions in the race, and it will come down to us putting it all together.


Laurent Mekies, Racing Director

All in all, it was a satisfactory qualifying. We came here knowing that the hierarchy would be different to that seen at the two unusual tracks in Monaco and Baku and that the characteristics of the Paul Ricard circuit would not be ideally suited to our SF21. But once again, we were able to demonstrate that we are the best of those teams directly behind the two that are fighting for the championship. Furthermore, as in the three previous qualifying sessions, we got both our cars ahead of our direct rivals.
Carlos is having a great weekend, showing that he is making progress, and his qualifying performance was really good. Charles couldn’t get the right feel for his car, especially the front end, but on his final run, he still managed to get close to the third row that could have been within his reach.
Tomorrow’s race will be long and difficult, with tyre behaviour playing a crucial role. On this front, the top ten are all starting on the same compound so we will be fighting on equal terms. We know our race pace is not as good as we would like at the moment, but we will prepare well tonight and tomorrow and will continue to do so over the coming weeks, in order to give our drivers an ever more competitive package.

[Greig]

Bit wet for F3, drying up now though.

[ntukza]

Leclerc said he was very happy with his Q3 lap and Sainz simply did a better job.

Yes he was happy with his lap because he managed to claw back a lot of tenths. He didn't say he was happy with the car, he said he was happy with how he drove that lap.

But that makes me wonder. When one driver struggles with the car, like Leclerc struggling with the front end, while the other driver doesn't, is it because of the drivers or the engineers or the car somehow?

[wisepie]

Not sure whether hoping for some rain would help or hinder us, forecast shows possible thunderstorms, so we'll see!

[Nick Singer]

Rather sad that anyone is pleased about P5 and P7 on the grid..

We are looking like clowns, to be honest. Our history, our budget, our engineers, our facilities and top drivers yet still we cannot compete with the Mercedes - and now even with the Red Bulls.

SO easy for the ***** at BBC (Benson) and the ******* at Sky to ridicule us!

Will still watch even though I know I'll end up having a crap evening..

Sad times.

[stefa]

Rather sad that anyone is pleased about P5 and P7 on the grid..

We are looking like clowns, to be honest. Our history, our budget, our engineers, our facilities and top drivers yet still we cannot compete with the Mercedes - and now even with the Red Bulls.

SO easy for the ***** at BBC (Benson) and the ******* at Sky to ridicule us!

Will still watch even though I know I'll end up having a crap evening..

Sad times.

:clap

[ntukza]

Oh dear. Norris' strategy seems to have worked very well. Only a few tenths off best of the rest with much much fresher tyres.

[ntukza]

Pathetic race for us, this.

[ntukza]

Rather sad that anyone is pleased about P5 and P7 on the grid..

We are looking like clowns, to be honest. Our history, our budget, our engineers, our facilities and top drivers yet still we cannot compete with the Mercedes - and now even with the Red Bulls.

SO easy for the ***** at BBC (Benson) and the ******* at Sky to ridicule us!

Will still watch even though I know I'll end up having a crap evening..

Sad times.

I just hope for the life of me that Ferrari haven't come to accept this mediocrity. We seem to have pretty average engineers. They can't solve issues with the car. Merc and Red Bull can show up on a track and have a poor Friday yet make significant improvement come Quali and the race. We simply don't have the ability to do that. We've been struggling with tyre degradation from Bahrain testing and it only seems to have gotten worse.

[ntukza]

Where is everyone?

[ntukza]

Oh, I didn't realise that this thread was just for practice and quali and not the race.