Source: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
[Saba Sports News] While rivals were fully accelerating at the end of the straight, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were executing a special task—lifting the throttle and letting the Ferrari SF-25 car glide like a glider over the straight of Silverstone. According to senior reporter Ted Kravitz, this was not a fuel-saving strategy, but rather a directive from Ferrari to find a fatal flaw in the car’s ground clearance. Since the start of the season, the SF-25 has been plagued by low ground clearance. The first red light appeared during the opening race in Australia, and the Chinese Grand Prix saw Hamilton lose his result due to excessive damage to the underbody. Seven-time champion Hamilton admitted that the team was forced to raise the car’s height to avoid risks, but at the cost of performance. Now, Ferrari’s race engineer Bryan Bozzi has instructed Leclerc to lift the throttle and glide at the end of every straight. According to Kravitz, this technique usually used for saving fuel and protecting tires can increase the car’s ground clearance by 2–3 mm, preventing the underbody from being excessively damaged again. However, Kravitz emphasized that if the drivers did not strictly follow the instructions, Ferrari could face a nightmare where raising the car’s height caused a dramatic drop in performance.