F1 Italian GP qualifying telemetry: Ferrari SF-24 flies on straights but not enough to beat McLaren

Introduction and Qualifying Overview Saturday at the 5.79 3 km autod dromo nazian alanza concluded with a great battle in the qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix with minimal gaps and close competition up to the last moment as expected although in the end the standings reveal some important insights into the overall balance between the teams the team that dominates albeit McLaren's Dominance with just a tenth of a second advantage over the competition is McLaren which secures the front row with Lando Norris and Oscar piastri and impress with its overall performance after showing a Performance Analysis of the MCL38 clear performance Advantage at the xan vort circuit in a maximum downforce configuration a papaya front row at the track that requires the least downforce of the 2024 Formula 1 season gives an idea of how the MCL 38 is currently the best car overall at this point in the championship the data from monza's Key Factors in Monza's Qualifying qualifying lap is still very clear and for this reason let's analyze it and look at some of the key factors that led to the final Telemetries and Setup Choices result of the many telemetries we analyze throughout the year that of the Monza circuit is certainly one of the simplest given the few curves and the one-way nature towards low down force of the Ferrari's Setup and Performance circuit the first two things that stand out are how Ferrari has chosen an unloaded setup and on the other hand how Mclaren has slightly more downforce than its Rivals starting from the latter we McLaren's Downforce Advantage notice how Lando noris dominates the entire Central sector from the roia chicane through the two lesmo corners and arriving at the Calo showing all the indicators of Greater downforce on the Ferrari's Strategy and Top Speed contrary Ferrari opted for an extremely unloaded setup as confirmed both by the indicators and the truly remarkable performance in the Monza Straits if on Hybrid Power and Speed Analysis the main straight the difference in top speed is contained the main reason is that all the teams unload all the Hybrid Power precisely in the very long straight between the parabolica and the first chicane given how much time is spent at maximum speed in the following Ferrari's Performance in Different Sections sections however where the hybrid is necessarily used more sparingly those with less drag come to the four and the two sf24 cars show very high top speeds both approaching the roia 6 to 7 km per hour over Lando Norris and George Russell before the escari 5 to5 and at the breaking of the parabolica 5 to4 the hope of the Marinello technicians was also to exploit the strong adhesive grip of the soft tires with the high temperatures to find that extra grip even in the more twisty sections but the necessary balance was very delicate and the gradual drop in temperatures as the day progressed took some strength out of the front of the sf24 impacting both Carlos SS and Charles ler albeit in different ways as we will see shortly in the second part of the video Mercedes on the other hand took a sort of middle ground with a particularly balanced car both in terms of downforce and balance with George Russell clearly hitting the perfect Tire window on his last ATT attempt and Lewis Hamilton finishing sixth but only 77,000 from Oscar pastry's front row giving an idea of how close the top drivers really were on Saturday afternoon in Italy Red Bull and Max versten however struggled greatly the data shows a clear loss of grip from the middle of the lap onwards starting in Q2 indicating a setup window and tire performance badly out of Target the rb20 single seater seems to have opted for a setup on the higher downforce side of the spectrum available but so far the results are quite disappointing with low speeds on the Straits and grip difficulties in the corners the car's chronic understeer seems impossible to correct with so little downforce available relegating world champion Max verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to the unexpected role of a struggling fourth Force this weekend at Monza on this topic it is interesting to reconsider the comments of the two Ferrari drivers after the qualifying session with Charles lerk stating that he and Carlos Saints rotate the car differently looking at the Telemetry data we can see that the monagas tends to accelerate while still in the middle of the curve unlike his Spanish teammate and we can recall how often Charles lerk has emphasized the need for a strong front end even over the radio during the session connecting the dots it appears that Charles L Clerk's driving style in these conditions involves rotating the rear of the car in slower Corners using the throttle while keeping the front axle planted so to speak in contrast his Ferrari teammate Carlos Saints is much more Progressive but more at risk of under steer in Long Corners the weakening of the front end thus ended up and this is clearly visible when analyzing the Telemetry data weakening Charles L clerk in short slow Corners the three chicanes and putting Carlos SS in difficulty in the longer faster Corners such as lesmo and parabolica Ferrari ended the qualifying session just over a tenth of a second behind the time that earned Lando Norris the poll for the Italian Grand Prix yet Charles lerk struggled to hide his disappointment this disappointment to be clear is not tied to the fourth place on the grid for tomorrow's race in front of the Ferrari fans but rather to The Chronic problem at least this weekend of under steer that was evident in the first practice sessions yesterday and was never really fixed by the Marinello team the underst steer problem Charles lerk says is something that particularly affected his sf24 in his opinion Carlos Saint's perform Med better in Corners where he struggled especially in the first sector however what disappointed him most was the inability to improve the under steer issue a problem that will also affect his performance in tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix today the top six in qualifying were separated by just over a tenth of a second a tight session that suggests an equally uncertain race Charles L clerk believes he can have a say at least in words because looking at his expression when he said these words the chances seem much smaller and McLaren as he admitted himself might reveal even greater Ferrari's challenge potential finally regarding the race predictions Lando Norris and Oscar piastri are certainly the favorites in the fight to win the Italian Grand Prix also due to the possibility of working together as a team and managing pace and strategy with two cars in front assuming both get a good start Beyond this however the advantage in race Pace should not be nearly as significant as seen at the xan vort circuit last weekend and Mercedes and Ferrari should be almost on par right behind them the 100 m of drag reduction system added on the main straight should make overtaking much easier than last season and this could significantly enliven the race considering that the strategy will almost certainly be a One-Stop with Tire degradation improving more and more as the track evolves Ferrari team principal Frederick vur told sky in his interview at the end of the qualifying session that the unloaded setup for the sf24 single seater should be of great help in the race also confirming the counterintuitive nature that this generation of Formula 1 cars sometimes expresses which definitely puts Ferrari in an attacking position in the hope of scoring at least a Podium finish in front of the toosi in the first challenge against Mercedes Scuderia Ferrari seems able to compete at least on equal footing while against McLaren it will depend on how the higher downforce setup will affect Lando Norris and Oscar pastry's Tire management and race Pace as for the Formula 1 championship this is an important opportunity for Lando Norris and McLaren the level of Ferrari and Mercedes at the Monza circuit appears very high and recovering from Seventh Place for Max ver stop in this time seems like a truly daunting task especially considering what was seen on track from the Red Bull RB 20 so far this weekend we will see therefore who will prevail in an Italian Grand Prix that is technically not entirely representative given the uniqueness of the circuit but which risks having a significant impact on the 2024 Formula 1 season