Ferrari’s Sprint Saturday had two different faces. Carlos Sainz had a little struggle in part 1 of the shootout, but managed to outqualify his teammate and score a 3rd place in the Sprint itself. Charles Leclerc on the other hand struggled during the shootout, got a 3 place grid drop for impeding and eventually ended up on position 12 at the finish line.
The Spaniard was of course delighted in parc fermé, despite the fact that the drivers had to try the intermediates without any practice on them this weekend.
“Tricky conditions out there. Especially because it’s the first time that we run with the inter in the whole weekend, so you never know what to expect from the balance, the grip on the track, and to do it in the middle of a race.
“Experimenting in the middle of a race is never easy, but it looked like we had a decent pace. I was struggling a little bit in the high speed at the beginning of the race, then managed to gain a bit of pace back.
“I could stay close to Checo but the Red Bulls were just a bit too quick for us today.”
The driver on the other side of the garage was visibly disappointed, especially in himself. stating:
“I am disappointed in the race overall. I haven’t been strong, but it’s been three races now that whenever I’m on slicks, on a track that is half dry, half wet, I am nowhere. So we need to understand on my side what I’m doing wrong in terms of driving.
“Obviously it seems to work on the dry, it seems to work also when it’s full wet, but when it’s in between the two, I’m nowhere.”
Leclerc was self-conscious as always, but did seem a little frustrated, knowing there is some work to be done.
“For now, I always end up on the wrong side it seems. But again, it’s me and working together with the team that will have to try and understand what I do wrong.”
Team boss Frédéric Vasseur wasn’t too hard on his star driver, stating that he also lacked a bit of luck today.
“On this kind of condition, a bit damp, he struggled this morning during the quali. It was the same in the race with the penalty, as we said, he started a bit at the back.
“I think he was not very lucky in the fight also because two or three times he tried to get the guy in front of him and he was passed by the guy behind. I think he knew also that in such a short race, if you start not on the right foot, it’s more difficult.
“We have to do a reset for tomorrow. We are starting from the first row and it’s a good opportunity for Charles to score good points.”
The Ferrari principal lauded his other driver, who had to spend 12 minutes in the box during the first part of the shootout due to technical gremlins, for driving a solid race and his performance in the morning.
“For sure it’s a good one. He was in very good shape also yesterday with his P3 on the grid for tomorrow and it was a good result.
“And from this morning that we started a bit on the back foot in Q1 when we had the issue with the brake and he had just one lap and he did a good lap.
“I think it’s encouraging now that we have to put everything together all over the weekend and I hope that tomorrow we’ll be able to have a good race.”
