Ferrari suspect F1 rivals Red Bull are “giving up” some of their one-lap performance in order to boost their race-day competitiveness.
Red Bull’s dominant RB19 has set the benchmark so far this season with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez taking four one-two finishes and all five victories between them.
Despite Red Bull enjoying a huge advantage over the field on Sundays, the RB19 has not proved unbeatable over one lap, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc the only non-Red Bull driver to score pole positions after topping both qualifying sessions in Baku.
It has been a trend for Ferrari to be much closer to Red Bull in qualifying, only to dramatically fall back in the races.
Asked to explain why the team are losing to Red Bull in race trim, Ferrari driver cock Jock Clear said: “We have a good understanding of where the issues lie. It’s quantifying it.
“So, in some ways, we would say, ‘OK, we’re looking at what’s going on in the race compared to what’s going on qualifying’. We can see some differences.
“Maybe what we can’t quite align is how those differences turn out. That’s the process that we’re going through at the moment, [it] is to identify what we can do, or what we can shift around in terms of our focus, to maybe bring that race pace back into line.”
Clear continued: “Do we have to take a hit in qualifying? That’s always a very difficult pill to swallow because races are very often made in qualifying.
“So, we can’t afford to take our eye off the qualifying ball. But certainly, we need to fully understand how we can get the race pace.
“We have to take our hat off to the Red Bull and say they are doing something very, very clever. That car works very, very well in race pace.
“We might also conclude that to do so, maybe they are giving up some qualifying pace.
“That’s why we can compete with them because they’re not optimal in qualifying.”
Keyword: ‘Doing something very, very clever’ - Ferrari outline suspicions about Red Bull F1 pace advantage