Abu Dhabi GP Free Practice: Leclerc fastest despite many interruptions!

(Cover picture: Scuderia Ferrari - X)

Friday at Yas Marina goes down as one of the least significant days of this 2023 Formula 1 season. While FP1 was almost fully dedicated to many young drivers (thanks to the FIA regulation which imposes, let's remember, at least two sessions for the rookies throughout the season), in FP2 it was the red flags that slowed down the working plans of everyone. For this reason, more than on other occasions, take the following results with a pinch of salt:

Given the few data at our disposal, the usual Friday's analysis can only be based on the comparison between the best personal laps achieved by the drivers of the top teams. From this perspective, however, we'll have to wait at least for FP3 tomorrow morning to have some indications on a track in more similar conditions to those we'll have in qualifying and the race - ambient temperatures aside.

Analysis of personal bests: an ominous McLaren in the first sector, Red Bull in the other two. But Ferrari has the most complete package so far!

Taking a closer look at the laptimes that made up today's final classification, the situation relating to the individual sector times is as follows, remembering that the best split times are in bold:

Driver Laptime S1 S2 S3 Gap
Leclerc 1'24"809 17"510 36"263 31"036 -
Norris 1'24"852 17"323 36"459 31"070 0"043
Verstappen 1'24"982 17"564 36"413 31"005 0"173
Bottas 1'25"024 17"471 36"453 31"100 0"215
Perez 1'25"112 17"381 36"251 31"440 0"303
Russell 1'25"122 17"370 36"680 31"072 0"313
Zhou 1'25"223 17"478 36"593 31"152 0"414
Hamilton 1'25"315 17"447 36"648 31"220 0"506
Gasly 1'25"321 17"499 36"529 31"293 0"512
Piastri 1'25"361 17"252 36"875 31"234 0"552

The split times of the two McLaren drivers in the first sector are perhaps the most "weird" data that emerge, as we know that the S1 of Yas Marina consists of only three medium-high speed corners, for a total time of approximately 17 seconds, as you can see in the table. How could Piastri and Norris inflict at least two tenths of a second on their opponents in such a short period of time? The answer must necessarily have to do with the level of aerodynamic load chosen, and in fact the hypothesis of a high downforce setup is confirmed by the slower split times of the second sector (S2), which instead, with its two long straights, favours more aerodynamically efficient cars.

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

I believe that McLaren has to keep the chosen setup in view of qualifying and the race, because whereas it's true that this can be a problem in battle with other cars, as we know having extra aerodynamic load helps to preserve the tyres from degradation, in this case reducing tyre slip... Mercedes also seems to have opted for a similar choice, but in the case of the English-German team, previous races have shown that it's a necessity rather than a choice without technical constraints.

James Sutton / Motorsport Images

Charles Leclerc's Ferrari SF-23 appears to be the car with the most neutral aero-mechanical balance of all so far, although no one has lapped long enough to "seal" this judgement. I am mentioning only Leclerc because, although he set the best laptime of the day, his teammate Sainz finished FP2 after just over eight minutes, putting his car against the wall in the fast Turn 3. Many drivers complained about the presence of a bump there that tended to unsettle the cars as they passed over it, but ultimately the only one to pay the price was Carlos, as you can see in the video taken from the Formula 1 X profile...

The second red flag of the day, after the one caused by Sainz, was due to Nico Hulkenberg's spin in Turn 1, following which he hit his rear end against the barriers: in his case, however, the interruption lasted only a few minutes (excluding the downtime needed to get back on the track).

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Long run analysis: few significant stints, so teams go into the race unaware of tyre degradation...

The forward shift in the work programs of the various teams has taken away time from the possibility of carrying out consistent long runs, in order to evaluate the reliability of the tyre degradation models that each team develops before every race weekend. In Abu Dhabi, as we know, a very important factor to take into account are the low temperatures, given that - as in the last event in Las Vegas - the sessions take place at night.

Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

If, on the one hand, low air and asphalt temperatures enhances the cooling of the Power Units, on the other hand it's crucial to know how to immediately nail the "working range" of the tyres: going even just a few degrees outside this operating window triggers a vicious circle which severely limits tyre grip, obviously affecting the laptimes.

These kinds of considerations, without wanting to repeat ourselves, are difficult to evaluate over the few laps covered by the drivers in the final runs of FP2, but for the record here we report the laptimes set:

  • Leclerc (S): 1'28"602 - 1'28"496 - 1'28"080 - 1'27"794 - 1'28"429;
  • Norris (S): 1'28"208 - 1'28"070 - 1'28"624;
  • Russell (M): 1'29"463 - 1'28"451 - 1'28"145 - 1'28"104 - 1'28"131;
  • Piastri (M): 1'27"578 - 1'27"737 - 1'27"648 - 1'27"754 - 1'27"965 - 1'28"889 - 1'28"764;
  • Albon (M): 1'28"044 - 1'28"153 - 1'27"549 - 1'27"953 - 1'28"401 - 1'28"316 - 1'28"335;
  • Ricciardo (M): 1'27"383 - 1'27"547 - 1'28"368 - 1'28"271 - 1'28"009;
  • Gasly (M): 1'30"362 - 1'29"925 - 1'30"530;
  • Bottas (H): 1'29"080 - 1'29"093 - 1'29"159 - 1'29"209;

Drivers' words at the end of Friday at Yas Marina

What the Ferrari drivers said

"I only did one lap with the Mediums, then I immediately used the Softs and the feeling was quite good. It's a good sign when you start like this, so I hope we have a good weekend. Mercedes also seemed very strong in FP1, while I don't know exactly what they did in FP2, where they seemed slower"

Charles Leclerc

"Obviously it wasn't the Friday we wanted to kick off the weekend: I went over a bump, and this is a big mistake. For some reason there have been some changes on the track, there are too many bumps: one at the exit of Turn 2 and another at the entrance to Turn 3... this generation of cars doesn't like bumps! Already in FP1 I was about to go off track, so I changed something in the setup, but for some reason it happened in FP2. In any case I feel good, it was a rather serious accident, but once again it demonstrated that with these safe cars you can escape unscathed even from hits like this"

Carlos Sainz

What the Red Bull drivers said

"We weren't able to do much work today, also because our balance was quite out of the window. The car was jumping a lot, it had a lot of understeer and this will require work in view of tomorrow's sessions: time for us will be short [...] At the restart after the red flag the others had to move, they were all going slowly and I had to get back on track. I had little time and the others kept getting in the way. When I tried to pass, they tried to push me against the wall, and clearly this isn't good"

Max Verstappen

"We had to make some changes to the car towards the start of the session, initially I had some problems with the front end. Due to the red flags we were barely able to lap at all, especially on the Mediums... It wasn't an easy day, and that means we have to be very careful about which path to take with the setup. I still think the car has good potential, we just need to make a few changes here and there, then we should be in a good position for tomorrow"

Sergio Perez

What the Mercedes drivers said

"FP2 was very frustrating for me and, I think, for everyone... In the end we lapped very little and didn't do any long runs, which is the main objective on Friday. In the laps we did, the car was fine, the grip as well; as always, there are some aspects that we will examine during the night to see what we can improve. It was a shame not to have been able to lap more, but we will try to recover in tomorrow's FP3"

Lewis Hamilton

"It was a relatively positive Friday for us. In FP1 there were a lot of rookies on the track, so we couldn't really understand what our pace was relative to the others. Fred Vesti did a good job for the team, he helped us, giving us a lot of useful data to analyze. FP2 was interrupted and so, once again, we were unable to understand where we stood compared to our competitors. I'm excited for tomorrow"

George Russell

What the McLaren drivers said

"It was a decent day, we didn't do many laps today, I think in total there were 5 flying laps. So, it wasn't the Friday I would have liked, especially from an FP2 point of view, I felt like I lost even longer; but in those few laps I felt comfortable and gained confidence very quickly, which is always important on a day where FP1 is missed [...] In general, we're more comfortable compared to Las Vegas and other races, but there weren't many long runs with high fuel loads!"

Lando Norris

"It was nice to be back in a place where I've driven before... That said, it wasn't a smooth day... FP2 was quite disrupted by various events, there are definitely some things to work on but the car felt really competitive. I'm confident in what I'm capable of doing, I just need to fix a couple of mistakes and we'll be good to go... FP3 will be characterized by very different track conditions! [...] Q3 is definitely the minimum objective, I think Lando has shown that the pace of the car is now acquired, and I'm quite confident that if I manage to put everything together, I can be there too"

Oscar Piastri

See you tomorrow for FP3 and qualifying, respectively at 11.30 am and 3.00 pm CET. Who will get pole position at Yas Marina?

Categories

Reading time: minutes
Back to blog