As the passionate Tifosi showed up in thousands at the historic Monza circuit, Ferrari hoped to live up to their expectations by securing the pole position in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. Despite being in contention, besting the McLarens and the Mercedes of George Russell proved to be an insurmountable task as Charles Leclerc only managed to qualify in fourth place. His best lap time of 1:19.461 in Q3 saw the Monégasque driver 0.134 seconds behind pole sitter Lando Norris, who is regarded as the favourite to make his way to the top step of the podium tomorrow.
Although Ferrari appears to be on an upward trajectory with Leclerc securing back-to-back podiums at Spa [following Russell’s disqualification] and Zandvoort, they have a lot of ground to cover before they can challenge McLaren for wins in terms of pure performance.
With the upgrade package they have brought to Monza, the Italian marque hoped to unlock the SF-24’s potential that was previously limited by the bouncing generated in high-speed corners. However, they were hindered massively by understeer as Leclerc bled critical lap time while navigating the opening two chicanes during qualifying.
Speaking afterwards, Leclerc expressed frustration that they were not close enough despite a massive improvement in qualifying performance since Zandvoort. He stated that the problem of understeer was persistent for the duration of FP2 and qualifying as he struggled to rotate the car through the first few corners of the lap and lost two-tenths and a half in the process. However, he appeared confident that the same issue won’t have an impact on his race pace tomorrow.
“It’s frustrating because we were close, but it’s not enough. Turn 1, 2, 4, 5 we’ve had exactly the same issue since FP1. FP2 just understeer-y, can’t rotate the car. FP3 for some reason there wasn’t the problem anymore. Then qualifying it came back; that’s what is frustrating because we lose two-tenths and a half in four corners at the beginning of the lap. To come back is very difficult.
“Again, it’s the way it is, now we’ve got to focus on the race pace tomorrow. Don’t expect to have as much of an issue into Turn 1/2, 4/5 and hopefully that will help our race pace.”
When asked if a substantial difference in setup contributed to his struggles in the reprofiled turns 1 and 2 in comparison to Sainz, the six-time race winner clarified that they opted for a compromise since he managed to extract more time in the other sectors of the lap.
“Big differences? No. We had some differences and he was quite a big stronger in Turn 1 and 2, which is something we’ll analyse and have analysed already.
“We didn’t quite make a step forward on that side. I gain everywhere else, so we decided to stay there. At the end it’s the same lap time but it was very tricky.”
Based on the long-run simulations, Leclerc expects multiple teams to lap at a similar pace tomorrow. However, he stated that he intends to focus on the drivers ahead contending for the podium places.
“I want to look forward, backward there are a lot of guys who are super quick and would have expected to be in front of us today. At the same time, I think we can have a good race.
“There wasn’t too many differences of pace apart from Lewis [Hamilton] that did a really strong race pace in FP2. But he did something…. he was a bit too slow in the first part of the race simulation, which I don’t think he can do tomorrow. So I think we’ll all have a very similar race pace tomorrow.”
The 26-year-old was also asked if he had a particular strategy in mind to go toe to toe with the McLarens tomorrow. Leclerc emphasised that a good start, along with staying within the DRS of the McLarens, would be imperative in the initial laps of the race. Given the searing track temperatures at Monza, he confidently added that management of tyres would determine who goes home with the biggest points haul this weekend.
“A good start, then try to use DRS to stay with the McLarens, which we expect to be very strong.
“Then, it will be a tyre management race. Everybody has a very similar pace; apart from any surprises tomorrow, I think we’re all pretty similar. However, we’ve got to do a good job tyre management-wise, because that is what will do the difference tomorrow.”
