Scuderia Ferrari sometimes seems like a mystery. The SF-23 seen on Saturday seemed a distant relative of the one observed on Friday. However, this is mainly reduced to the lap times because, in terms of balance, the red car continued to show a generally good setup. It is clear that in qualifying, when things got serious, some issues became apparent.
The handling was not perfect anymore. There were some difficulties reaching the apex of the curves, perhaps a slight lack of rotation. Moreover, in the pursuit of performance with a certain degree of oversteer, it made its presence felt again. Although it seemed manageable, in Q1, car number 55 wasn’t enough: Carlos, amidst the confusion due to traffic, set a time that placed him in sixteenth position.
The other red car struggled but made the cut. The prospects for Charles were similar. There was a lot of difficulty in extracting the time even though the performance was satisfactory. However, the Monegasque does not give up. He closes in radio silence and focuses to the maximum. Then, once Q2 is surpassed, in the last part of qualifying, he gives his best and surprisingly places himself on the front row. Bravo.
Ferrari with a double performance/Carlos Sainz out, Charles Leclerc phenomenal. Positive thoughts for the race
Carlos Sainz made a mistake on Friday, losing the car in in first sector at the Yas Marina circuit. The Spaniard crashed into the barriers, wrecking his car, fortunately without causing too much damage that could have resulted in a penalty. The work of the mechanics to get him back on track was long and strenuous, and yesterday, in FP3, the Iberian appeared with a strong desire for redemption.
His work seemed good, although like his teammate, unexpectedly, he couldn’t perform well on the push lap, so that at the end of the free session, his car was even last. We know the rest, and the Madrilenian tries to summarize it like this:
“Everything happened to me this weekend. Today we had to be perfect to reach Q3. In the last attempt, we delayed leaving the pits a lot, all because of a headache with the front wing. For this reason, I encountered a lot of traffic. I knew the attempt wasn’t good, even though I did quite well in the last sector.”
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Similar story for Charles Leclerc. He also suffered the same headaches; however, somehow, the performance of his SF-23 was better. At the end of FP3, he opens up on the radio after the last time with the Soft, questioning himself about why the times were so low. Then, in this case too, we know what happened in qualifying: “A weekend that started very difficultly. Honestly, I didn’t expect such a result, and I am very happy for the team,” comments Charles at the end of the qualifying session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Regarding the last race of the 2023 Formula 1 racing campaign, the goal is only one and concerns the fight with Mercedes. For Charles Leclerc, it’s the only motivation left. The former Alfa Romeo knows well that the competitiveness of Las Vegas is unlikely to show up, and the race involves many opponents very close to each other. Nevertheless, the race configuration of the red car seemed solid. Confidence exists and needs to be nurtured. The “two Carlos” coincide in one thought: “We are focused on ourselves.”
Source: Alessandro Arcari for FUnoanalisitecnica
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