#not being able to overtake a VCARB is not looking good for Carlos chances of Red Bull

[charles-leclerc-official]

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[charles-leclerc-official]

I still think you’re not giving Daniel and RB their credit and placing too much discredit(?) on Carlos (not that he shouldn’t be completely without accountability). I think RB just nailed the set up this week. Daniel made up a lot of time at the corners. He had better traction coming out of it and saved his battery for the straights. Ruth Buscombe said that RB specifically prioritized the corners while ferrari was more balanced. Because RB is usually slower and way behind Ferrari, isn’t today an even bigger indication that Daniel and RH did something right/better?

Again true. Like Danny was great, and VCARB did really good with the setup.

However Carlos was within DRS and had so many opportunities for that overtake, it's not like Danny got out ahead and created a gap, Carlos was within that gap for a while. Not being able to pull those overtakes isn't due to maybe being lacking in the grip on corners (we didn't see him slide that I'm aware of) so that really isn't the issue.

The matchup between cars was really unusual here. And we can see based on Yuki's placement in qualifying that is probably closer to where Danny would have been if we are going based on car setup. Danny qualified where he did because he 1. put together a good lap and 2. a lot of drivers behind him in better cars messed up their SQ3 laps (Lando being a good example) He really shouldn't have been starting P4, 50% of that is him, but the other 50% is the other drivers really messing up their laps.

If Carlos had been able to overtake him I am pretty sure Danny would have also been overtaken by Oscar.

Overtaking really does come down to skill, and he was within that range, yes defending is too, but like I said Danny wasn't doing anything crazy defending really. He was doing a good job but it wasn't like he was going crazy.

Also there were many laps where he was faster than Danny, it really is on him to overtake there. His overall pace was better and his laps (minus the ones where things were slowed down for all of them on some of those turns) were faster.

Like here his pace was consistently faster in terms of lap time. Danny had it on him only a few laps, but the Ferrari was faster. Like faster by 3 - 5 tenths. Those are laps when he really had the speed and proximity to make the pass.

And then if we want to look at the corners you are referring to we can look at the fastest lap track maps, the first is Carlos vs Danny and the second is Carlos vs Charles, and the third is Charles vs Danny.

So you are right, Carlos was struggling with grip on the corners. But compare it to Charles, Charles was doing better than Carlos and Danny on most of those same corners. It wasn't a Ferrari Vs VCARB problem, it was a Carlos vs VCARB problem.

And just to be sure here is the track map for the fastest laps of both Ferraris and both VCARBS. It's Charles outperforming the VCARBS on the corners. Again so it's not the car setup being unable to take the corners that is the issue here.

Also managing tyres is down to skill, once again this is on the driver. Carlos has had average tyre management in this car, and the car as we have seen is very gentle on the tyres. I'd say his losses are due to the temps not favoring his tyre management, thus more tyre deg.

This really was a skill issue on Carlos' part. He didn't change up the way he attempted to make that pass(we saw him try the same thing multiple times) it's no wonder Danny didn't struggle to defend against it. He should have tried to change up his approach going into the corners on the overtake to catch Danny off guard. Given how many chances he had it really is on him.

And it's also just a difference in the cars, I'm sorry but there really aren't many good excuses when Ferrari is the second best car and it's stuck behind a midfield car. I'd give him more grace if it was a Mclaren or even an Aston, but it's a VCARB, that car is not that good. I don't want to discredit Danny too much because he did drive well, but the reason he finished where he did was because Carlos couldn't overtake and he had a lucky qualifying lap.

And here's the thing, it's okay, everyone has less than optimal showings. I get that, I don't want to be too hard on him, I just lay this out because it is mostly on him.

Like we have to have space for drivers to have bad days and less than stellar performances. I look at things as a whole. And unfortunately this does continue a pattern of him not doing well overtaking in the SF-24. So this isn't just this race either, it was just highlighting a weakness more than anything.