There’s no escaping reality, which in motorsport is dictated by the stopwatch. Ferrari’s natural position on the starting grid for the Dutch Grand Prix was sixth, where Charles Leclerc will start. This calculation was made excluding Sergio Perez from the top five, but the Mexican moved up when Lewis Hamilton faltered. The final result for the Scuderia remains unchanged: P6. No one in Maranello can be satisfied, but at the same time, there’s an awareness that today it’s difficult to aim for anything more unless external variables affect the cars’ potential.
“We knew it would be tough,” Charles Leclerc admitted. “We maximized our qualifying with sixth place. In the end, the lap felt good, but we’re still 9-tenths behind on such a short track; it’s a lot, too much. But we’re aware of this gap, and we’re working at full speed. Hopefully, the updates we’ll have will help us reduce this margin. When will they arrive? I know the plan, but I won’t reveal it…”
The nine-tenths highlighted by Charles Leclerc are due to a track feared by the Scuderia (considering the car’s fundamental characteristics) but, above all, due to the lack of new developments on the cars, at a time when direct rivals are confirming themselves as works in progress.
Charles Leclerc tried to push as much as possible, but it was all too clear how difficult it was for the Monegasque (as well as for Carlos Sainz) to accelerate mid-corner without struggling with an unstable rear end.
On Carlos Sainz’s side, there’s the frustration of missing Q3 but also the understanding that it would have been impossible to do much more. Carlos tried the soft tires for the first time in Q1 due to the stoppage in yesterday’s FP2 session caused by a transmission problem. To make matters worse, FP3 ended after only fifteen minutes due to Logan Sargeant’s violent crash, another circumstance that condemned Sainz to start qualifying without references.
“I usually take little time to find the limit,” Carlos Sainz explained. “I think today I could have made it to Q3, but too many things happened this weekend, and we’d also been on a break for three weeks, which also had some impact. In the end, without the traffic from Hulkenberg in Q2, I could have made it to Q3, but I don’t want to sound too optimistic.”
Frederic Vasseur didn’t hide either. This is a Ferrari that’s in sixth place, and that was the result. “Last year, this was one of our worst races, mainly due to the track configuration, and we didn’t bring any updates to the car here. In the end, we secured a good grid position with Charles, and tomorrow we’ll have our chance to fight for some good points, although a podium finish will be difficult to achieve unless something happens in front.”
The scenario is clear, even if it’s not promising. The race will be an uphill battle, just like qualifying was, and Ferrari’s goal will be to limit the damage by trying to bring home as many points as possible. “So far, we’ve seen that this season, the performance levels between teams can vary if you hit a difficult weekend like the one we’re experiencing here: that’s why it’s important not to leave empty-handed. More favorable tracks for us will come in the remaining races, and soon we’ll make progress with updates on the car.”
The tracks will certainly come; they’re on the calendar. The updates will have to arrive and prove capable of shifting the technical hierarchy. Even the role of second force that Ferrari held in the first third of the championship is now a distant memory.
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