After the missed victory in Baku, Ferrari is back on track right away, along with the F1 circus, for the 2024 Singapore GP. Historically, or at least in recent years, the Marina Bay circuit has always favored the Scuderia from Maranello, even leading to the only non-Red Bull victory in 2023, with a car that, in fact, started off terribly but was improved over the season through hard work at the factory.
Charles Leclerc is still dwelling on what happened less than a week ago in Azerbaijan: the Monegasque’s tactic was clear, to stick close to Oscar Piastri with the help of DRS once passed and catch him on Baku’s extremely long straight, but McLaren’s speed on the straight was too much even for the SF-24 with its rear wing fully open.
In recent hours, the FIA has also opened an investigation into the so-called mini DRS used on Woking’s MCL38, and it reserves the right to change the regulations on this point whenever it deems most appropriate. For his part, the Australian defended himself in a press conference, stating that the car passed all technical tests regarding the issue, effectively closing the matter.
Ferrari, Charles Leclerc wants to forget Baku
For Ferrari, Singapore presents a sort of rematch on a track that should once again, as in the last two races, see a battle between the Scuderia and McLaren. Both teams were the front runners in Baku, with the balance tipping more in favor of the SF-24 until the pit stop, but then something happened that prevented Leclerc from fighting for the win. Evidently, there were misjudgments. However, Charles doesn’t want to talk about revenge; he hopes the car will be competitive, but he can’t give any guarantees yet.
“I don’t think the issue was the introduction of the tire,” said Charles Leclerc, reflecting on what happened last Sunday. “When I came out of the pits, I didn’t have grip and struggled to activate the hard compound, but after overtaking, I tried to preserve the tires, staying behind Oscar Piastri’s DRS to catch him later. It wasn’t possible due to the speed McLaren found on the straight.”
So, there’s no certainty regarding the SF-24 at the moment, at least not yet. We’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s free practice, which will be crucial on a track like Singapore, where confidence is everything: “For this weekend, we definitely want to react and get back to winning. I don’t know if the car will have the potential to do so; we’ll see after tomorrow’s practice, but this has always been a good track for us in the past, and I hope it will be again this year.”
Ferrari, Sainz: 200 GPs and 3 career victories
The last winner of the Singapore GP is Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari driver has reasons to be disappointed with what happened last Sunday at the Baku city circuit, with that late-race incident involving Sergio Perez, which cost him a good result at the finish line. The Spaniard continues to insist that he did nothing wrong, and the FIA decided it was a shared fault. For the Spanish driver, Sunday will also mark his 200th F1 race: he has three wins, one of them at Marina Bay last year with Ferrari.
“The more I watch the Baku incident, the more I’m convinced I didn’t do anything dangerous,” Carlos Sainz said during Thursday’s interviews at Marina Bay. “It was definitely an unfortunate situation, but I didn’t take any risks or try to push Sergio into the wall. Even the stewards said it was probably more his fault than mine, but that’s okay.” – the Ferrari driver concluded ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend at the Yas Marina circuit.
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