David Coulthard summed up Ferrari’s dilemma in one line: “Based on last year’s performances, you’d say Charles. Based on this year’s, you’d say Lewis.”
I reloaded both seasons in the sim, setup by setup. Charles Leclerc’s season last year: aggressive settings, an early apex, a style that gains time if the track holds. Lewis Hamilton’s this year: smoother, fewer peaks, more points over the distance. Exactly what Coulthard says, except he saw it in real life and I only in thousandths.
Delta between the two approaches over a full stint: seven tenths in favour of the Leclerc style on a single lap, wiped out over twenty laps by the consistency of the Hamilton style. In the sim, that’s settled with a slider. In real life, it’s called a whole season, and nobody has a slider for that.
The sim doesn’t tell the difference between a driver who’s fast on one day and one who’s consistent all year. There’s no variable for “five Grands Prix without a podium” either, it doesn’t fit the tyre degradation model. In theory, the two styles are equal. In real life, apparently, one of them scores more points.
Since the tension at Zandvoort and Monza, the question of a hierarchy at Ferrari seems to have lost its relevance, after five straight Grands Prix without a podium for the team. Juan-Pablo Montoya, on F1 TV, doesn’t see any favours coming between the two men anyway.
It’s true, we checked: Nextgen-Auto.
