The red car doesn’t suit the red tires. In the most important moment of the USA GP Sprint Qualifying session, Ferrari had to lower its expectations, surrendering the front row to the Max Verstappen – George Russell duo. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s qualifying sessions had started well, in line with what was seen in practice. Charles led in SQ1, Carlos in SQ2, but once the soft tires were fitted, something didn’t go as expected. With the ‘red’ tires, George Russell lowered his previous time by seven-tenths, Max Verstappen by 0.407 seconds, while Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz improved by only 0.333 and 0.185 seconds, respectively, resulting in third and fifth positions.
“For some reason, Mercedes really gained a lot with the softs, a margin we weren’t able to achieve,” commented Charles Leclerc. “Our pace seemed good with the mediums, but with the softs, we weren’t able to fight for pole position. My lap was a bit scrappy, but in SQ3 we weren’t at our best, which can happen when there’s so little time available in practice.” Carlos Sainz echoed this sentiment: “I had a really good lap in SQ2 with the mediums, but then with the softs, it seems we’re still missing something compared to the two Mercedes and Max Verstappen. They seem to be one or two tenths quicker, as we saw with the lap that Lewis had to abort.”
The reasons why Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz couldn’t compete are being analyzed by the Scuderia’s engineers, and there’s still time before the Grand Prix qualifying session scheduled for today. Race pace, however, is a different matter. The nineteen laps planned for the Sprint will likely be run on medium tires (this is the general expectation in the paddock), a compound with which both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have shown competitiveness. “We don’t yet have a clear picture of all our rivals’ race pace,” Charles Leclerc pointed out, “but I’m hoping for a good Sprint Race, which would be a positive sign for Sunday’s race.”
“Starting from third position isn’t too bad,” Charles Leclerc concluded, “and since we don’t yet have a clear idea of the overall performance, I think everyone will start with quite a few question marks. Can we win the sprint race? I hope so.” Carlos Sainz also seems optimistic about the race pace. For Carlos, the priority is to understand what didn’t work in sprint qualifying and fix it ahead of today’s session: “Being in first place with the mediums and fifth with the softs means there’s something to figure out. As for the race, I think we’re in the right spot.” – he pointed out.
In the assessment of the first day of track activity at the Austin circuit, there’s also the green light regarding the car’s performance in fast corners, which had been the nightmare of the SF24 since the Spanish Grand Prix up until the latest updates after the summer break. Austin was seen as a sort of final exam after the less representative rounds at the street circuits of Baku and Singapore. “The result, I’d say, is positive,” confirmed Frederic Vasseur. “We’re happy with the pace we’ve shown so far. We could have done a better job in SQ3, but overall, it’s a good start to the weekend.”
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