Another qualifying, another tough moment for Scuderia Ferrari, which capitalized on Oscar Piastri’s deleted time for track limits to secure fourth and sixth places in view of the Austrian Grand Prix. While not a negative result in absolute terms, what weighs heavily, as with yesterday, is the gap from the front, a significant five and a half tenths.
On the positive side, however, the gap to McLaren is much smaller than initial impressions might suggest, with the deficit to Lando Norris, who once again finished second today, reduced to less than one and a half tenths.
According to Carlos Sainz, this is also due to Ferrari pushing for more aggressive changes between the sprint race and qualifying. However, these changes pushed the car closer to its limits, making it more challenging for the driver to manage on track and find the best possible feel. Part of this was evident in Charles Leclerc’s “all in” attempt at the end, which led to two errors in the space of three corners.
Contrary to this, Carlos Sainz delivered the lap, securing a fourth-place finish that, despite being on the dirty side of the grid, should keep him in contention at the start, particularly in the Mercedes zone, the team Ferrari sees as their true weekend rival.
“It’s a very difficult weekend. But overall, it seems we’ve been struggling a bit in the last few races. We seem decisively behind Red Bull and McLaren, while we’re fighting with Mercedes in race, sprints, and qualifying, but it seemed they had a bit of an edge on us,” said Carlos Sainz.
“We made some changes in qualifying that could make the car faster but also a bit more on the edge, and it was very difficult to put together a lap. But I’m happy because we made a good lap and we’re in fourth place. I would have been happy if they had told me before qualifying.”
Once again, Carlos Sainz identified a major issue for the qualifying difficulties, namely the return of bouncing, which Carlos Sainz admitted could be linked to the updates that recently debuted in Barcelona: “It could be linked to the updates,” said the Spanish driver.
“Without going into too much detail, I think it’s a combination of us not being effective in high-speed corners and at the same time having to manage bouncing, which makes our high-speed performance excessively slow,” added Carlos Sainz, rightly highlighting how the SF-24 already struggled in fast corners, as seen in other championship events, but bouncing has added another level of difficulty.
“For this reason, at turn 7 and turn 9, we have a tenth of a second gap to Max in every corner. It’s very difficult to recover that tenth throughout the rest of the track because we’re almost equal in low speeds. So yes, that’s it. But yes, we’re already working hard back home to try to understand this new package and the bouncing issue, as well as how we can improve.” – he pointed out.
However, the Spaniard emphasized that the new package actually showed the expected improvements in other parts of the track where bouncing is not an issue, further highlighting the weaknesses of the Red car.
“We see that it works in all the points where there is no bouncing, but… But if bouncing at high speed is triggered and you have to manage it, then perhaps what you gain in some points is lost in others. Obviously here on this track it has a greater effect because the more high-speed zones there are, the slower you are. So yes, it’s not ideal but, as I said, the team is pushing hard at home to try to solve the problem and see how we can come back stronger at Silverstone.”
Carlos Sainz preaches calm, as he knows what needs to be worked on at the moment and this is not the first time he has emphasized this thought. On the other hand, it is important to emphasize how others are making strides at a faster rate than Ferrari.
“I think Monaco is always a unique circuit. People, after winning in Monaco and getting on the podium, thought we could become world champions. But I always kept calm, as we came from difficult weekends in Suzuka and China and I knew that on these tracks with long, high-load corners, basically normal tracks, we’re not at the level of Red Bull and McLaren. And if you add to this the fact that Mercedes has made a great step forward, then suddenly the situation seems difficult. But we have made our steps forward, we have improved the car. It’s just that others are improving more, it’s a tight race at the top.” – the Ferrari driver concluded at the end of the qualifying session for the 2024 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix.
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