French GP - Upgrades and Quali predictions

Ferrari set to be on pole. Everyone brought upgrades except Haas

1. McLaren found some pace

McLaren brought the most upgrades for this race of all the teams and they are looking quite good in terms of raw pace. Norris had the upgrades for both FP1 and FP2 sessions while Daniel tested used them in FP1 to get a reference laptime for comparison. During the driver’s interview, Lando talked about how the new upgrades are different to his usual driving style, contrasting that his team-mate Daniel got a better intuition for these new upgrades.

With Alpine and McLaren at 81 points fighting for P4 in the Constructors Championship, this is indeed a good news to hear.

2. Leclerc comfortably ahead of Max

On a one-lap quali pace, Leclerc is comfortably ahead of Verstappen and it is the familiar story for this season - Ferrari quick on corners and lacking top speed on straight lines while RedBull have the top speed but can’t carry higher speeds in corners. The above map clearly shows the magnificent top speed of RedBulls on the straights. This is a circuit with average overtakes above 40, so Sainz starting from the back of the grid due to engine penalties need not worry much about traffic hindering his race.

3. Upgrades liked by Gasly

On a one-lap pace, Gasly is back to a familiar territory of finishing in top 10 where he set a competitive lap time to their main rivals this year - Haas, who moved up in the charts claiming P7 with 34 points after a great performance at Austrian GP. Other than the one-time Honda had engine issues at Bahrain, their power unit is quite reliable. Assuming no first lap incidents we can expect AlphaTauri to be in Top10.

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Meme of the day

Gasly