The disaster in the red cathedral of Imola was very bitter. Before qualifying, expectations were not high; fourth place on the starting grid was seen as a great result, the third row as a placement consistent with what Ferrari can offer today.
An hour later, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton walked to the weight checks while the top 10 went out for Q3, all in a surreal silence in the stands and on the famous passion hills of Imola. It was clear it would not be a great day, the results from the three practice sessions had already excluded Ferrari from the fight for the first two rows, but no one could have predicted what happened afterward.
At the end of qualifying, Charles Leclerc, as usual, gave the most realistic picture of what is happening at the Italian side. He said that what they saw was the best possible performance and expressed regret. The Monegasque driver added that there was nothing giving him hope for tomorrow and that he believed this was currently the potential of their car.
The perfect storm took shape by combining several shortcomings. Charles Leclerc was right when he said the problem was the overall performance of the car; no matter how much they adjusted the balance, there would still be a performance problem.
The potential of the SF-25 should have allowed Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to at least fight for the third row, but here came the second reason that kept the Ferrari duo out of Q3. This weekend at Imola, Pirelli brought the new C6 compound, very close to the C5 (performance difference was estimated at two tenths), which in qualifying proved harder to use than expected. Already in Q1, some drivers improved their lap times using a set of used tires.
What emerged was that after the first thermal cycle, the C6 stabilized, effectively approaching the C5, which which was the medium compound this weekend. It is no coincidence that in the last Q2 run, Aston Martin sent Alonso and Stroll out on yellow tires, and it was their last-minute entry into the top 10 that excluded the two Ferrari cars, who had left the pits for the final Q2 run on new C6 tires.
At the Maranello pit wall, they did not correctly interpret the track evolution, and without a perfect execution, Ferrari does not have the potential to easily pass into Q3, as was clearly seen today at Imola.
Frederic Vasseur commented that the problem they paid for was linked to the tire window as well as the car’s potential — if they had done everything right, they probably would have finished fourth and fifth. This means execution was not good, but neither was the potential. Thousands of fans were there to support them, and they failed to give them a good result, so they cannot be satisfied. It was a very difficult day for them, and as had happened in Miami, they failed to improve their times with new tires, so much so that their fastest lap in Q2 remained the one set on the used set from Q1. Tire management was strange for everyone today, but it seemed to have affected them more than others.
Frederic Vasseur concluded by saying that tomorrow they would have to try to understand what they can do. Although on Friday they showed a good race pace, it is not easy to overtake here. They expect a challenging afternoon and will probably have to take some risks, especially strategically. Tonight, they will focus on this to get the most out of tomorrow for their fans.
The French manager’s view is textbook, but to understand the negative impact that today’s performance had on many people in red, Charles Leclerc’s words fit better. He went beyond predictions looking toward tomorrow’s race and also spoke about the upcoming weekend in Monaco. The Ferrari team boss said that he thought it would be the same situation and that he believed the Monte Carlo track would expose all the weaknesses of their car, making it another very difficult weekend for them.
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