If you had told Ferrari before the sprint that Charles Leclerc would beat Lewis Hamilton and finish only about two seconds behind George Russell, they would have seen that as a promising result. However, the Monaco racer, as the fastest of the Scuderia pilots, lost more than 28 seconds to Max Verstappen and more than 24 seconds to Lando Norris in 24 laps. That’s quite a lot.
Charles Leclerc took four points from the sprint for fifth place and Carlos Sainz a point for eighth place. Ferrari didn’t impress at Interlagos on Saturday, but they didn’t disappoint either. Both pilots started on used soft tires, they had one sharp qualifying round behind them and they constantly heard on the radios about problems with overheating of the single-seater, for which they were not allowed to stop, but had to let off the gas a little before each braking point and cool the car.
Despite everything, Charles Leclerc passed the struggling Lewis Hamilton at the end. That sounds promising, but the Monacan was unable to shake off Júki Cunoda for the full 24 laps, whose AlphaTauri was spared fresh soft tires after an unsuccessful qualifying, and both drivers of this stable were extremely fast on Saturday.
“I was encouraged by Júki’s pace because he put on fresh soft tyres. We didn’t expect their pace to be at our level, but on the new tires his speed was similar to ours. So I think we made the right decision,” he said Leclerc after the sprint for Sky television.
To clarify, Ferrari still have a fresh set of soft tires in the garage for Sunday. She can meet, but alone Leclerc he admits that after starting from the second place, he will have more defensive duties. “I have no doubt that we made the right decision. Yuki was able to stick with us, which is not usually the case, so you can see the advantage fresh tires bring. I am more optimistic, but we have to be careful with our statements, because being optimistic does not mean attacking for victory.” says the Monaco racer.
The comparison with Mercedes is important. The two teams have collected a similar amount of points in the last few races and it was no different in the Brazilian sprint. Even with the troubled Mercedes, Ferrari looked like they could dare on Sunday and reduce their points lead in the fight for the overall second place.
“I think the race pace was not bad, but only when we compare it to Mercedes. Being compared to the extremely fast Lando McLaren and the extremely fast Red Bulls means we have a huge amount of work to do. We’re obviously missing something and I don’t quite understand what it is because our pace is very similar in qualifying but it’s a huge difference in the race. This is exactly what we are currently focusing on, not only in the short term, but also in the long term,” he said Leclerc.
Cooling problems cost Sainz a lot of time
After the sprint, the second Ferrari driver also reminded that tires are key before Sunday. However, the Scuderia was also troubled by the temperatures on Saturday. The engineers called their drivers several times during the 24-lap race to remind them of the need to cool the power unit. However, something like this costs you time.
“We entered today with the goal of saving as many tires as possible for Sunday’s race. So it was clear that this day would be difficult. However, we didn’t expect to have to manage engine temperatures to such an extent. I had to take my foot off the gas earlier before the braking point, which saved me a huge amount of time.” he said Sainz after the end of the sprint for Sky.
“We didn’t expect to have to cool the cars so much. Hopefully it will improve on Sunday because I couldn’t push it as much today. Hopefully it will be possible for me in the race,” the Spanish competitor added hopefully at the end.
2023-11-04 20:37:41
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