Jeddah circuit: Charles Leclerc penalized by mechanical grip of SF-25

April 20, 2025

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Ferrari is as soon as once more in issue. The fifth spherical of the 2025 System 1 season leaves no escape for the Prancing Horse, as soon as once more disappointing on a tough observe however with fewer compromises in comparison with the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit. And so, we’re as soon as once more commenting on the identical end result: second and fourth row, the place the Purple automotive appears to have settled. And the brand new ground? It hasn’t made the anticipated distinction after the Sakhir debut.

Let’s analyze the telemetry comparability between the poleman Max Verstappen’s lap and Charles Leclerc’s fourth place with a deficit of 0.376 seconds. It wasn’t a great Ferrari as one may need anticipated, particularly till the top of Q2, with each drivers encountering main difficulties within the first sector, unable to correctly activate the tires within the optimum window, particularly on the entrance.

And this represents an enormous downside on a observe like Jeddah. As highlighted on Friday within the evaluation of the second free apply session, the traits of the Saudi road circuit, particularly extraordinarily excessive speeds, tight corners, partitions simply inches away, require a exact entrance finish, able to guaranteeing fast, sharp, and repeated route adjustments. Due to this fact, the entrance finish have to be stiffened, inevitably sacrificing some grip in gradual corners.

Certainly, as seen from the telemetry information, that is the place the Purple automotive struggles. Whereas the SF-25 is kind of good within the quick sections, within the lower-speed part – situated exactly within the first sector – the automotive struggles to warmth up the tires and rotate because it ought to. It’s between turns 1 and a couple of that Charles Leclerc loses a big 0.265 seconds to Max Verstappen’s Purple Bull. The reason being twofold and may be rapidly defined:

A nook entry affected by understeer, which forces Charles Leclerc to hold much less pace by means of the nook; a much less aggressive line in comparison with the Dutchman, who cuts the primary curb extra, travels a shorter distance, and is healthier positioned for the route change. Bryan Bozzi has repeatedly emphasised how problematic this part is. Even in flip 4, the SF-25’s points are confirmed: Charles Leclerc takes the nook with 6 kilometers per hour much less.

He has to hesitate on the throttle to keep away from dropping the rear. Within the following part, between turns 5 and 12, automotive quantity 16 stays comparatively secure on the rear, and Charles Leclerc handles the route adjustments with willpower and fluidity. However even right here, Purple Bull has the higher hand: it manages to generate extra downforce at very excessive speeds, permitting Max Verstappen to maintain the throttle down longer, whereas the Monegasque is pressured to raise off by a great 20-30%.

By the top of the primary sector, the hole between Charles Leclerc’s SF-25 automotive and Max Verstappen’s RB21 is 0.350 second, virtually similar to the ultimate hole on the end line. This confirms the difficulties of the Italian automotive within the slower part and the competitiveness, nevertheless, within the two-thirds of the observe at increased speeds the place the Monegasque automotive holds up effectively in comparison with the Milton Keynes machine.

Arriving at flip 13, the elevated hairpin, Charles Leclerc pushes onerous and manages to convey 10 kilometers per hour extra in entry pace, then goes with the throttle earlier, with the automotive nonetheless within the means of settling. At flip 16, nevertheless, he experiences a slight snap on the rear, forcing him to barely contact the brake and barely raise the throttle on exit, however with out a important impression on the lap time.

In the remainder of the lap, prime pace values are virtually similar, confirming that, in immediately’s race, overtaking would require being considerably sooner on the exits of key corners, somewhat than relying solely on prime pace. It also needs to be famous that the DRS zone and the slipstream will definitely contribute to overtakes, as Jeddah normally sees these maneuvers regularly.

In Q3, Charles Leclerc gave his greatest with the accessible bundle, which mechanically doesn’t assure optimum efficiency within the slower sectors. The comparability with Hamilton highlights much more the difficulties within the slower part (1-2), the place the Englishman has to brake many meters earlier to rotate higher, and even then, he nonetheless faces issues.

In the remainder of the lap, Lewis Hamilton’s insecurity is obvious: he loses from half a tenth to a tenth and a half in each quick nook and route change in comparison with the Monegasque, carrying a lot much less pace by means of the corners: -7, -17, -13, -4 kilometers per hour within the quickest sections. The qualifying tally is ruthless: 5-1 in favor of the Monegasque. The seven-time System 1 world champion nonetheless has lots of work to do to achieve his teammate’s stage in qualifying tempo.