Scuderia Ferrari’s qualifying session ended with a second and third row, with a fourth and fifth place that leaves a bittersweet feeling. Overall, Frederic Vasseur tries to look at the glass half full, especially considering that Ferrari has managed to stay ahead of the main threat of the weekend, the Mercedes team, which had shown good pace in long-distance runs but slightly less in single-lap performance.
The surprise of the day was McLaren, which had been somewhat hidden behind some balancing difficulties and lower engine mappings compared to their rivals. They managed to place both cars ahead of the SF-23s and achieve a result that brings great confidence in the fight for points.
Beyond the weather and track conditions that influenced the result, Fred Vasseur doesn’t make excuses, emphasizing that Ferrari could have done better even though they couldn’t materialize it as they would have liked. Charles Leclerc, in fact, seemed to have the potential to secure a spot on the front row but lost those crucial hundredths of a second at Stowe, slipping behind both MCL60s.
“Today it’s difficult to have a clear picture of the hierarchy, and in the end, I don’t care because what matters is where we are on the leaderboard [fourth and fifth]. Today we have mixed feelings because we are ahead of our direct competitors, but on the other hand, we could have done better. We didn’t put everything together, and it was a challenging session. It turned out this way, not a bad result, but let’s see tomorrow.” – the Frenchman added.
Carlos Sainz explained that the goal for tomorrow is to aim for the podium by beating both McLaren and Mercedes, whom they expect to be tough opponents. On the contrary, Fred Vasseur chose to maintain a more cautious approach without taking sides, emphasizing that in the last two races, the team has managed tire management well, but they must also consider that Silverstone is very demanding on tires. “It’s hard to say for us. If we look at the data, we didn’t run with Charles yesterday, but if we consider the last two races, things went well for us. But Silverstone is a very demanding track in terms of tire management.” – he continued.
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During qualifying, an incident caught attention, sparking numerous controversies: Carlos Sainz’s overtaking of Charles Leclerc just before the last corner and the Spanish driver’s team radio in the pit lane when he was asked to swap positions and let his teammate pass. Regarding the on-track overtaking, Fred Vasseur doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it and doesn’t see any drama because the situation arose from the lack of time and maneuvers by other cars, such as Lewis Hamilton’s.
“The last group of cars slowed down clearly, Hamilton overtook both of our cars before the last corner, creating some confusion. I think we were all a bit concerned about crossing the finish line before the checkered flag, but there’s no need to make a big deal out of it. We’ll handle it over a beer.”
In mixed dry-wet conditions, the focus was also on Charles Leclerc, who in recent races has shown some discomfort in dealing with a slippery track on slick tires. That’s why this morning, during FP3, the Monegasque driver decided to do one or two more laps than his rivals as the intensity of the rain was increasing. “I think that’s why he did laps on slicks this morning! I understand why he wanted to do a couple of laps in those conditions, so I said it was okay. But in general, all the qualifying sessions were complicated. We didn’t know the weather forecast and what would happen. In the end, only Max made it to Q3 with two sets. Let’s see tomorrow.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
