Leclerc extreme ‘lift and coast’ instructions – Ferrari scored their best result of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth and Charles Leclerc on the final step of the podium. Yet post race the inevitable theme emerged about the future of team boss Fred Vasseur, who had mysteriously left the race weekend after qualifying on Saturday.
An obituary for his mother has now appeared on reddit, which explains the personal reasons cited by the Scuderia for the sudden absence of their team principal. Leclerc had taken advantage of the yellow flag late in the final session of qualifying, which meant neither Oscar Piastri nor Max Verstappen could complete their final push for positions on the grid.
With the Monegasque starting in P2 and championship leader Piastri one place further back, the game afoot was to keep the McLaren driver behind at the start for as long as possible. Yet as the lights went out, the fast starting Leclerc looked to the inside of turn one to make his move for the lead. Lando Norris spotted this and blocked the Ferrari driver, inadvertently allowing his team mate to make a move around the outside of the first corner to take the place immediately from the Ferrari man.
Early call to Li-Co
Then came the call from the Scuderia’s pit wall to Charles Leclerc to “LiCo” – lift and coast. So early in the race, this is a strange instruction to give a driver and used for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is when a team has calculated there will be a safety car in the race and therefore deliberately underfeeds a car given the expected fuel saving during a period of caution.
Lift and coast is where the driver lifts from the throttle peddle early, sails the car into the initial part of the corner before trail breaking into the apex of the turn. This is a less aggressive form of braking
which reduces the peak temperatures created by the carbon fibre discs. Further it controls the pitch forward of the nose of the car, retaining a more level posture for the chassis which can benefit the wear of the underfloor plank from becoming too excessive.
Li-Co means not running the engine at full throttle for quite as long which also improves the general cooling of the car and in the searing heat of Austria this year that may well have been part of the intention. However, the resigned tone in Leclerc’s response to being instructed repeatedly to Li-Co suggests this was more fundamental to certain design characteristics of the SF-25.
Reasons for Li-Co instructions
Two theories have emerged around the excessive need for the Ferrari drivers to LiCo and the first relates to issues suffered by the team at this year’s Chinese Grand Prix. Both drivers were disqualified after the race because the plank wear underneath the car – which is how the FIA ensure a minim ride height – was deemed to be excessive by the the officiating scrutineers.
With full tanks of fuel, regular braking is causing the nose of the SF-25 to pitch forward/dive to such an extent, the underfloor plank is experiencing higher than usual wear. As the race evolved and the cars burned off their fuel and became lighter and the urgency from the Ferrari pit wall over the Li-Co instructions appeared to abate. This would suggest the early Li-Co calls were plank wear related, rather than over heating of the brakes.
Yet in Spain, where plank wear was an obvious concern for the Ferrari team, it was later in the race when the Li-Co calls came thick and fast. As the car became lighter, the downforce increased along the pit lane straight and the team were concerned with the bumpy nature of the surface wearing away the plank. However, with the instructions coming at the start of the Grand Prix in Austria, its more likely the Li-Co calls were brake temperature related with the resulting heat management affected of the tyres.
Over the years the FIA have reduced the temperature allowed in the tyre warmer blankets and so the teams have developed systems which transfer heat from the brakes, through the rim and into the tyre. This means in cooler temperatures the tyres are up to their operating window more quickly, good for preparing for a qualifying lap and also after tyre changes during the race.
Verstappen breaks silence over Austria crash
Qualifying v race pace trade off
Yet the payback for Ferrari improving their capabilities in qualifying has a trade off, the heat from the brakes must be managed during a 300km long Grand Prix. Whilst the Ferrari is firing its tyres up well at the start of a stint, they are being forced to use Li-Co to keep the temperatures under control across a stint of 20 laps.
Lewis Hamilton was filmed staring at the results board when he climbed out of his Ferrari in the Styrian Hills and later he made an observation of interest saying, “at least we weren’t a minute off the Ferraris.” Li-Co is clearly not the quickest way to drive an F1 car around the track so clearly the seven times world champion was happy with the 20 second gap between the winning McLaren and his team mate Charles Leclerc in third.
For Hamilton the gap was 30 seconds, but even so that is around 0.4second per lap, something easily explained by the excessive amount of lift and coast the Ferrari drivers had to deliver. For Leclerc the Li-Co is counter intuitive to his driving style as he explained after the Austrian GP.
“To maximise the potential of the car we have to do this during the race [Li-Co]. But today we paid a lot of the price, especially for my part the balance I had and the LiCo are two things that don’t get along very well,” revealed the Monegasque driver. In Austria the Li-Co was definitely more tyre wear related than concerns over the ride heights, but come this weekend in Silverstone that will change.
Ferrari new challenge at the British GP
The Northamptonshire circuit is not particularly tough on brakes and the cooler temperatures forecast will mean Ferrari will need to manage the tyre wear less during the race on Sunday. It will be once again the SF-25 ride height that may cause some concern at the high speed and at times bumpy track.
So any Li-Co instructions coming from the Ferrari pit wall this coming weekend, will be based on concerns over plank wear. However, the recent Ferrari upgrades are supposed to deal with any inconsistent ride height issues, so if the team nail the setup at the British Grand Prix, the dream of Hamilton’s first win in a Ferrari may bento as distant as it felt in Austria.
Brad Pitt F1 announcement
Pitt’s Formula 1 bombshell leaves Hollywood and the paddock reeling – F1 Movie is a multimillion-dollar reality that has just exploded across cinema screens, and by the looks of things, Apple TV+’s accounting spreadsheets too. The long-awaited film F1, directed by Top Gun: Maverick maestro Joseph Kosinski, starring Brad Pitt as a seasoned racing veteran, was released in cinemas on 25 June and has already shifted into high gear at the box office.
And now, just days after its theatrical debut, Apple is reportedly considering a sequel. Because, of course, they are. With Brad Pitt’s smile in a fireproof suit and a billion-dollar sport as the backdrop, why wouldn’t they?…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
