法拉利美国站排位赛未兑现练习赛强势
法拉利在奥斯汀三节练习赛中均居首，但排位赛仅由勒克莱尔和汉密尔顿获得第四、第五名，Q3未能找到足够提升。
法拉利为何在美国站排位赛中未能兑现外界期待
尽管法拉利在奥斯汀三节练习赛中均居首，勒克莱尔和汉密尔顿最终仅获得第四和第五名
法拉利在美国大奖赛练习赛后曾被看作最具竞争力的车队，但排位赛最终表现不及预期，Q3未能找到足够的提升。
勒克莱尔在周五两节练习赛中均排名第一，汉密尔顿则在勒克莱尔最快圈被删除后拿下第三节练习赛（FP3）头名，看起来车队已准备好与红牛的马克斯·维斯塔潘争夺杆位。
随着本节练习的展开，梅赛德斯也加入了争夺；基米·安东内利随后在Q3中跑出一记强劲的首个飞驰圈，这一成绩足以力压维斯塔潘夺得杆位。勒克莱尔只能排在第四，汉密尔顿在周日正赛的发车格上位列第五，法拉利的速度在排位赛的关键阶段似乎陷入了停滞。
这背后有两条线索：法拉利的直线速度，以及它在排位赛最后阶段让轮胎达到足够准备状态的困难。
法拉利在低速弯中展现出强劲表现，并且在练习赛中也能在连续弯段末端的6号至10号弯之间，以及高速的16号至19号弯中找到时间。但随着排位赛节奏不断攀升，法拉利未能及时作出回应。
勒克莱尔认为，法拉利在Q3末段表现平淡的部分原因在于赛道温度的变化。法拉利底盘在正赛状态下能够将轮胎温度维持在相对较低的水平，但代价是排位赛单圈速度——因为要让轮胎达到合适的热度变得困难得多。当赛道温度下降时，找到正确的轮胎工作窗口就更加困难了。
“这非常令人失望，因为我认为还有其他一些比赛周末我们在自由练习中表现强劲，但到了排位赛就很明显，其他人在直道上就是有更多优势，我们很难与之匹敌，”这位摩纳哥车手解释道。
“我觉得今天是一场排位赛，我们车里有潜力，但赛车也包括轮胎，不幸的是在Q3我们不在正确的位置上。Q3时温度大概低了一两度，对我来说差别巨大；我在出场圈就真的很挣扎，从出场圈开始就打滑得相当厉害，这让之后变得非常困难。
“[这个瓶颈]是有原因的，所以同时我认为我们只需要更加努力，尝试比现在更好地理解那些轮胎。我认为其他人通常有更多一点余量，他们在Q3中提取圈速比我们更容易，而我们一旦稍微超出窗口，就会付出很大代价，所以这是我们需要研究的事情。
“我们的车不知为何，很难让那些轮胎升温，这在周日对我们来说是好事，但在排位赛中当赛道温度下降时，这让事情变得非常棘手。”
另一方面，汉密尔顿没有遇到和勒克莱尔相同的问题；相反，他觉得自己的出场圈“非常好”，为轮胎做好了准备，并且在本节练习的最后一次飞驰圈中跑得相对干净。
相反，他推测这仅仅是法拉利如何运行其动力单元的问题——部分是由于整体功率，部分是由于电气系统的功率切断。
“我还没有看数据，”汉密尔顿说，“但整个周末我们知道看直道，就像直到1号弯[相比]马克斯，当我们切断功率时，他们就是继续拉。在其他地方也类似，比如进入11号弯。
“我想我们在12号弯以及本圈剩余部分可能差不多。你在叠加图上能看到。我不知道发生了什么，我的车感觉真的很好。圈速很扎实，所以他们就是更快。”
“我认为[动力单元]是我们唯一落后的地方。我觉得我们的赛车非常扎实：至少和其他人一样好，也许还稍好一些，但我认为他们在底盘方面已经追赶上来了。”
“我们已经看到红牛在空气下压力方面追了上来。梅赛德斯至少从几场比赛前就带来了三成（0.3秒）的升级幅度。我认为他们开始弄清楚如何利用这一点了。”
“他们现在在弯道中与我们不相上下，而我们本赛季无法迈出那一步，在直道上弥补那部分速度。”
对于相对红牛-福特动力单元的这一动力总成差距，汉密尔顿给出了一个具体数字：他的评估是，练习赛的节奏表明在直道上大约有三到四成秒（0.3至0.4秒）的差距，而法拉利单靠弯道速度根本无法弥补这一点。
如果情况确实与轮胎有关，那么法拉利将有信心在大奖赛过程中管理好温度——但引擎动力，尤其是在漫长的后直道上，将更难弥补。
英文原文
Why Ferrari failed to deliver on its hype in F1's United States GP qualifying
Leclerc and Hamilton qualified fourth and fifth, despite Ferrari headlining all three F1 practice sessions at Austin
Ferrari had been pegged as the team to beat after practice at the United States Grand Prix, but ultimately found itself wanting when it came to qualifying and failed to find enough progression through Q3.
Charles Leclerc had headlined both Friday practice sessions, while Lewis Hamilton took the honours in FP3 after Leclerc's best lap was deleted, and it looked as though the team was primed to battle against Red Bull's Max Verstappen for pole position.
As the session unfolded, Mercedes entered the fray; Kimi Antonelli then reeled off a strong first effort in Q3 which proved good enough to clinch pole over Verstappen. Leclerc could only manage fourth, with Hamilton fifth on Sunday's Formula 1 grid as its pace appeared to plateau at the business end of qualifying.
There were two strands to this: Ferrari's straightline speed, and its difficulty in getting the tyres sufficiently prepared for the final part of qualifying.
The Ferrari demonstrated strong performance in the low-speed corners, and through practice had also been able to find time between Turns 6-10 at the end of the esses section, and through the high-speed Turns 16-19. But as the pace ratcheted up through the qualifying session, the Ferraris couldn't quite respond.
Leclerc reckons the source of Ferrari's flat end to Q3 was partly down to the change in track temperature. The Ferrari chassis manages to maintain reasonably cool tyre temperatures in race trim, but this comes at the expense of single-lap pace in qualifying as it becomes much harder to load them with the right level of heat. When the track dropped in temperature, it made the right tyre window more difficult to find.
"It's very disappointing because I think there are some other weekends where we've been strong in free practice, but then coming to quali it's very clear that the others are just having a lot more in the straights and it's very difficult for us to match that," the Monegasque explained.
"I feel like today it's a qualifying where we had the potential in the car, but the car also includes tyres and in Q3 unfortunately we were not in the right place. It was like one or two degrees less in Q3 and for me it was a huge difference; I just really struggled in the out-lap, I was sliding quite a lot already from the out-lap and that made it very difficult after that.
"There are reasons for [the plateau] and so at the same time I think we just need to work harder and try and understand those tyres even better than what we are doing now. The others I think normally have a bit more, it's a bit easier for them to extract the lap time in Q3 than it is for us and as soon as we are a tiny bit outside the window, we pay a lot the price, so this is something that we need to look into.
"Our car for some reason, it's very difficult to put some heat in those tyres which is a good thing for us on a Sunday, but in qualifying it makes it very tricky when the track temp goes down."
Hamilton, on the other hand, didn't experience the same issues as Leclerc; conversely, he felt that he'd had a "really good" out-lap to prepare the tyres and had enjoyed a relatively clean run with his final lap of the session.
Instead, he theorised that it was simply a matter of how Ferrari was running its power unit - partly due to overall power, and partly due to the cut-off in power from the electrical systems.
"I haven't looked at the data," said Hamilton, "but we know through the weekend we look at the straight, like just up to Turn 1 [compared to] Max, when we cut power they just keep pulling. That's similar in other places like going into Turn 11.
"I think we might be similar in maybe Turn 12 within the rest of the lap. You see it on the overlay. I don't know what happened, my car felt really good. Lap was solid, so they were just quicker.
"I think [power unit is] the only place we lose. I think our car is really solid: at least as good, maybe slightly better than the others, but I think they have closed up on chassis.
"We've seen the Red Bull closed up on their downforce. Mercedes took a three-tenths step of upgrade at least from a couple of races ago. I think they're starting to figure out how to utilise that.
"They're now matching us through the corners, we're not able to take that step in this season to close that speed on the straight."
Putting a number to that powertrain deficit to the Red Bull-Ford unit, Hamilton's assessment was that the practice pace suggested a swing of around three to four tenths of a second on the straights, and that Ferrari simply couldn't match up to that through its cornering speed alone.
If the situation is indeed tyre-related, then Ferrari will be confident that it can manage temperatures through the course of the grand prix - but engine power, especially on the lengthy back straight, will be harder to compensate for.
Motorsport.com ·
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