It was quite a turnaround from Ferrari, from being 0.7secs a lap slower than Mercedes in qualifying in Melbourne, to Leclerc taking pole 0.3secs ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the fastest Mercedes in Bahrain.
Ferrari were lacking in lots of areas in Melbourne. This weekend, they have sorted out their chassis set-up so they were no longer losing much in the corners – but their advantage all came on the straights, where Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said his cars were losing “nearly 0.5secs”.
This level of power was not evident on the Ferrari in Australia. But the word is that they were having problems with the engine there, which forced them to run it at a lower performance level, which also had a knock-on effect on fuel consumption.
Binotto denied that Ferrari had a cooling problem – the main theory for the cause of the problem. But clearly something had changed.
“We have been out-performed on every single straight line,” Wolff said. “Massively out-performed. But we need to look at ourselves and say, ‘Have we miscalculated the downforce and drag levels?'”
Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas said: “It is more like a picture we saw in winter testing. We thought we were behind and today we were. We know we need to improve if we are to fight for pole.”
But qualifying is not the race – and on the race runs on Friday evening Mercedes looked much more a match for Ferrari.
“The question is how much power can they run in the race and for how many laps in a row,” Bottas said. “Our race pace looked good. We are going into tomorrow thinking we have a car that can fight for the race win.”
Strategy is unknown. The teams will try to stretch out the first stint for a one-stop, but a two-stop is also a good choice, and Wolff says there is the option of “a multitude of strategies. It will be a learning on the job and seeing how far you can stretch the initial stint”.
The first real straight fight between Mercedes and Ferrari of the season. It could be something special. Rather like the man who starts the race from pole.
