Despite high expectations at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, the red cars did not shine at the 4.94-kilometre Marina Bay Street Circuit. After a recovery race, the two Ferrari SF-24 cars finished fifth and seventh respectively, showing a much better pace than their final positions suggest. After the race, Carlos Sainz commented on his Singapore GP, also looking ahead to the next six races, his last alongside the Maranello team.
Good pace but qualifying decisive
The disastrous Q3 on Saturday at Marina Bay, as expected, weighed heavily. Starting from the fifth row forced the Ferraris to race patiently, waiting for some surprises to shake things up, which never happened. Charles Leclerc finished fifth, just behind George Russell, after showing a pace that could have seen him fight for second place, while Carlos Sainz finished only seventh following a strategy forced by traffic and an early pit stop.
The Spaniard highlighted how the main issue with the SF24 remains the same as at the start of the year. Ferrari still struggles to get the tires into the right operating window during qualifying:
“Our race pace is not a concern, we are fast. But in qualifying, we struggle too much this year; our window to get the tires working optimally is still too small. I made a mistake on Saturday and hit the wall, but we saw that even Charles struggled far too much.” – the Spaniard pointed out.
Looking to the future
Carlos Sainz continued his interview by looking ahead to the final six races of the season, although they don’t seem to favor Ferrari except perhaps in Las Vegas:
“In the last six races, we absolutely need to start further up and do better. I don’t want to say the last three races were missed opportunities, but we certainly should have achieved much more, especially between Baku and Singapore. Austin will be a key test to better understand how and to what extent the updates are working. The track is traditional with very fast corners, and I don’t know where we’ll stand. Perhaps the car will still be strong, and we’ll be able to score more points there and in Mexico.” – the Ferrari driver concluded following the 18th round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship.
