Scuderia Ferrari enjoyed a positive Friday free practice at the Albert Park Circuit, setting the fastest times in both FP1 and FP2, with Carlos Sainz in the first one and in the quicker second one with Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc. The scheduled programme went smoothly for the Maranello team, with Charles and Carlos working on fine tuning the cars in both race and qualifying configurations. All three of the Pirelli compounds available in Australia were used and evaluated by Ferrari, as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz completed 99 laps of the Melbourne track with its new layout.
Scuderia Ferrari Sporting director Laurent Mekies, however, is aware that Red Bull are not far away and will most likely improve ahead of the qualifying session on Saturday. At the same time, the Ferrari boss points out the fact that the changes to the Albert Park circuim remain theoretically favorable to the RB18.
The Frenchman believes we will once again see a fight between Ferrari and Red Bull ion the edge of just a few thousandths: “There are areas in which we can improve. The track is complicated and difficult, and if we just take tonight’s comments from Charles and Carlos, it is not such a car easy to drive. We still have a lot of work to do.” – he said, in an interview for Sky Sport 24 – “We found more performance than Red Bull, but they are very strong and if we look at Max at the end of the second practice session, he was right there close to us. Red Bull is strong in both the long run and the flying lap, we need to take a step further with the car in order to give the drivers the chance to improve even more. What will make the difference? A thousand details, not just a single thing, that’s the beauty of this sport”. – Laurent Mekies explained, at the end of FP2 for the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
Formula 1 track action resumes tomorrow with the third and final free practice session at 13 local (5 CET) in preparation for the qualifying session at 16 (8 CET).
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