Carlos Sainz is puzzled by his lack of raw speed on the soft tyre after qualifying in fifth place for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
The Spaniard will start Sunday’s race behind Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. Both cars will be moved up one place to third and fourth after Oscar Piastri’s three-place grid drop.
In Q3, the 29-year-old was almost 0.4s down on Verstappen in the first sector as any hope of pole was dashed within 24 seconds.
“The only thing that is puzzling me is how we can be four-tenths down in one sector. And which is sector one.
“I’ve been struggling every time I put on the soft tyre this weekend. I seem very strong on the medium, the hard, the used tyre.
“You put the new soft on, and I find barely any lap time, which is what puzzles me a bit. That is something that I need to work on. But the gap in sector one was particularly big.”
The wind has been a big factor at Imola, creating even less margin for error on a track lined with gravel.
The Pirelli tyres are also notoriously difficult to master, with a narrow working window.
Ferrari put in some promising lap times on Friday but ultimately failed to challenge McLaren and Max Verstappen for the front row when it counted in qualifying.
Sainz said the Ferrari SF-24 is particularly sensitive to wind, which may have cost him time in the first part of the lap.
“It is a balance shift, and it’s also the way the wind was blowing today. It doesn’t really help our car. Tailwind into turn two. Tailwind into turn seven, which is our main weakness.
“Still, with this car, it’s something that we know we need to improve, and we’ve been trying to improve for a while.
“And yet that probably didn’t help our sector one, but I think in general, we never had enough to challenge Red Bull, McLaren maybe with a huge lap. But when you have the two cars in front, they’re strong.”
Sainz reiterated the importance of focusing on his speed on the soft tyre, the grippiest tyre in the Pirelli range.
“Another thing we need to focus on, I think, is the soft tyre. I think we’ve been a bit up and down this year in qualifying with the soft tyre, and that’s sector one, as I said, puzzles me a bit.”
