Carlos Sainz explains that Ferrari understood from the data collected in Great Britain where it was necessary to work to regain lost competitiveness. The Spanish driver admits that the SF-24 is missing two or three tenths, but he is confident that the Maranello team can return to winning before the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
“The Silverstone weekend was an investment, in the medium and long term.” Carlos Sainz wanted to emphasize where the changes to the floor, which Ferrari will bring to the track this week at the Hungaroring, took shape.
“On the Friday of the British Grand Prix, we prioritized the comparison between the two cars,” he recalled, “and this obviously did not put us in the best position to optimize the weekend in terms of performance. We returned home with the data from Silverstone, and this allowed us to clarify things in the wind tunnel. Already this weekend, we have a small update that hopefully can improve the car’s performance.”
At Silverstone, it emerged that not only had Ferrari resorted to previous car updates, considered better for the layout of the English circuit, but according to Carlos Sainz, this is not a trend we will see in the future…
“I don’t think this is the ideal way to make a team work well; I am convinced that the basic platform of the car must be the same for every circuit, you should not choose different floors based on the characteristics of the track.”
On the subject of ‘floors,’ Carlos Sainz is instead optimistic about the possibility that this weekend the SF-24 will once again be free from the annoying bouncing.
“I am quite confident,” he reiterated, “the team warned us that the new floor could produce more bouncing, as it did. Now our simulations tell us that the update should cause less, so I am optimistic.”
Carlos Sainz is also quite confident looking ahead to the second half of the season, which starts this weekend in Budapest. When asked if he believes in the possibility that Ferrari can compete again with Mercedes and McLaren, Carlos was very firm in his response.
“I believe there is a chance,” he reiterated, “we just need those two or three tenths that today separate us from the fight for the win. If we can bring this small margin to the car in the next six or seven races, then we will have the chance to fight for victory in the final phase of the season.”
“But it is a crucial step,” the Spaniard concluded, “otherwise our chances of winning and getting on the podium will depend more on the mistakes of others rather than our performance. If you think about it, it’s only two or three tenths, but today they are really hard to find, and this is true for every team. Today all the teams are incredibly working hard to find that handful of tenths, sometimes it’s a matter of getting the right compromise, but of course, it’s easy to say, another thing is to put it all together on a car.”
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