Ironically, Monza was the circuit Ferrari feared the most. If you have an engine deficit on a power track, you have to make compromises when it comes to setting up your car. Ferrari trimmed its rear wing to the minimum so as not to be completely helpless on the straights. In order to keep the SF21 in balance, countermeasures had to be taken on the front axle. “That made driving pretty difficult,” said Charles Leclerc.
The narrow ridge on which the Ferrari drivers moved could have been the reason for Carlos Sainz’s crash in the second free practice session at the Ascari chicane. It was the third on a Saturday of the last four GP weekends. The Spaniard was puzzled a following day: “I have no idea why I went out there. The car was always neutral there before.”
Starting positions 6 and 7 were a surprise even for Ferrari. Especially after the bad experience at Spa. Perhaps the harassment was coming towards Ferrari. The SF21 likes slow corners with short radii. That was already shown in Baku. Most of the time, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz lost from Ascari to Parabolica. Given the nine tenths that separated the Italian side from pole position, Ferrari was just above the season average of seven tenths.
With 20 points, Ferrari got away with a black eye. Charles Leclerc had eye contact with the front runners throughout the race and was able to stay in the five-second window of Sergio Perez, who had overtaken him by shortening the second chicane, but did not want to give up his position. Until five laps before the end, Carlos Sainz was also on track to cross the finish line ahead of the Mexican. But then the newcomer in the Maranello team lost a lot and missed 5th place by 1.8 seconds.
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Double engine replacement
Team boss Mattia Binotto was satisfied with the performance of the team and the speed of the car on a power track. “It shows that we can react well to difficult conditions. The performance was positive, the result was not because McLaren won too many points on us.” Carlos Sainz was torn: “It was nice to see my ex-team win again, but they are also our main opponents and have gained a lot. Nevertheless, they are not miles away. We can still catch them.”
Ferrari is confident that its engine upgrade will make all the difference in the final part of the 2021 Formula One championship. We are talking about a gain of 10 to 15 hp. It is now expected for the Grand Prix of Turkey. Istanbul Park is a track where you can overtake so the sacrifice may not be that big after all, given the grid penalties which Charles and Carlos will have to take.
The engine department was very busy in Monza. In the short term, it looked like Charles Leclerc was facing another penalty: after engine number 3 caused trouble on Friday, engine number 1 was installed in the car with starting number 16 at short notice. And it already has over 4,000 kilometers on the clock. An investigation found that engine number 3 is fine. The alarm was caused by an electronic problem as the swap took place again on Sunday. The drive unit, which premiered in Spa, has a long life ahead of it at around 1,300 kilometers.
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