20:54 – The Ferrari drivers have little confidence that the 2020 Formula 1 season will be easier for the Scuderia at Silverstone. After a difficult Friday, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel determine that they will have a hard time in the British Grand Prix.
Ferrari went wrong this year with the new SF1000 and is only in fifth place among the manufacturers after three races. We should not expect much improvement from the Italians in the next two weekends, when driving at British Silverstone twice. Leclerc was fourth in the second practice on Friday afternoon, but warns of ‘two hard weekends’ at Silverstone because his Ferrari struggled especially on the longer runs and his fastest time was not representative.
According to the Monegask, Ferrari has gambled with the tuning of the car, which gives a faster time in qualifying but causes problems over a race distance. “In terms of race speed, we have had a really hard time, we should definitely work on that,” explains Leclerc. “The qualifying pace is a little bit better than expected, so that’s good. We took a rather radical approach with our amount of downforce. That seems to pay off in qualifying, but not in the race. We need to analyze the data and see what we have to do on Saturday. “
“We can still change a lot of things, so we try to understand what we can change to maybe sacrifice qualifying pace a bit to be better in the race. Finding the balance has been very difficult so far. The car has been difficult to drive and it was difficult not to make mistakes. We have to do something about that, because driving an entire race with that balance will be a huge challenge. “
For his part, Vettel was unable to try anything. He was on the side of the first practice with a broken intercooler. In the afternoon there was a problem with the brake pedal which kept him in the garage for a long time. “It was a disturbed day, which made it difficult to get into the rhythm,” the four-time world champion says. “All in all, we were able to learn a few more things, but we have to improve the car.”
After a sweltering day at Silverstone, it would cool down a lot on Saturday, something that would not be bad for Ferrari. “I think the track will be different, it should cool down. I hope we can come up with something about that. Hopefully we have a better day tomorrow.”
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