Ferrari approached Friday’s practice sessions with a cautious approach, keeping expectations grounded. That sums up the day for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, who posted the fastest time in the first session but finished fifth in FP2, over half a second off the pace. Still, that gap requires careful consideration: the setup chosen by the Monegasque driver for the second session proved ineffective, and teams spent the day experimenting with energy deployment.
A clear difference emerged between Ferrari and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who set the fastest time in the afternoon, in how they managed energy deployment. At certain points, the gap exceeded 10 km/h, particularly on the straight leading to Turns 9 and 10, where the two teams clearly adopted different battery usage strategies.
Understanding where and how to maximize energy usage will be crucial in qualifying, when the available power drops from 8.5 MJ in free practice to 7 MJ, a threshold designed to prevent overly aggressive energy recovery strategies. Assessing the first day, Leclerc divided the assessment into two key areas.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Foto di: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images
Leclerc stated that You’ll see still several unknowns regarding single-lap pace, though he believes Mercedes, including both the factory team and McLaren, began to reveal their hand in FP2, leaving Ferrari slightly behind. Mercedes continues to look strong, especially in race trim. The Australian Grand Prix marks the first race with a completely recent car for all teams, adding another layer of complexity to the weekend.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Foto di: Martin Keep / AFP via Getty Images
Mercedes was among the first teams to focus on long-run pace, with both Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell completing substantial runs, with Antonelli reaching nearly 15 laps. This represents an unusual amount of long-run work for a free practice session, where time for simulations is limited. Russell’s long run on hard tires similarly showed a solid pace.
“FP1 went well, FP2… I think Mercedes is starting to show a bit more of their potential, and in FP2 we started to see where we are lacking compared to them. They seem clearly particularly strong, especially on race pace. I don’t know how much margin they still have on the single lap, but on race pace at the moment they seem very strong compared to us,” Leclerc explained.
“On the race pace [Mercedes] were really, really impressive. On the single lap it’s difficult to understand how much margin they still have. Oscar did an impressive lap, but I don’t know what they are doing between the two cars, because Lando is quite far behind.”
“It’s the first race with a completely new car, so there are many question marks, but on the long run you acquire a clearer picture of everyone’s performance so far. I hope I’m wrong and that we will be much faster tomorrow, but at the moment Mercedes is a step ahead, and then Red Bull, McLaren and us behind.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Foto di: Paul Crock / AFP via Getty Images
With so many variables at play, especially early in a new technical cycle, teams are prioritizing internal work to understand where to improve their cars. Leclerc admitted that the more aggressive setup tried in the afternoon didn’t deliver the expected results.
“There’s a lot of work to do, but it’s not something I’m focusing too much on. We have many things to improve on our car. In FP2 I tried something quite aggressive that didn’t work, so tomorrow I’ll go back to a more reasonable window and we’ll see how it goes,” Leclerc said after practice, adding that he finds the Melbourne circuit challenging. “Melbourne and Shanghai are probably the two most difficult tracks for me on the calendar, and I always struggle a bit more, so it’s a challenge. But it shouldn’t be an excuse, quite the opposite, I enjoy this challenge and will work hard to turn things around tomorrow.”
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