Fresh “pulp” is needed. The idea that a gradual understanding of the car would also lead to progress is being disproven by the facts. The impression is that the SF-25 is now a dried-up fruit with little left to squeeze. The pursuit of the ideal situation, the perfect lap where the tyres hold without overheating, seems more and more like a theoretical hope. On paper it’s possible; in reality, much less so. Frédéric Vasseur continues to emphasize that the gap to the front is narrow — which is true — but Ferrari’s problem is that within that small margin, many rivals slip in and become difficult obstacles to overtake in the race.
Charles Leclerc (sixth in yesterday’s qualifying) lost 0.088s to the day’s leader, Kimi Antonelli, in the first sector, 0.129s in the second, and 0.109s in the third. “We weren’t too far from those ahead of us on the grid,” Fred Vasseur commented, “but what we did today isn’t enough, because we struggled to put everything together, there were some mistakes, and we had issues with the car’s balance. And all of that comes at a high cost in today’s Formula 1.” The cost is Charles starting sixth and Lewis Hamilton, who showed signs of progress, starting seventh.
Better balance is always possible — practically all twenty drivers on the grid would agree — but to aim for more than a supporting role (once again Ferrari confirmed itself as the fourth force), just working on setup no longer seems sufficient. “I don’t think there’s any room for improvement compared to what we saw today,” Charles Leclerc said after qualifying. “The car is what it is at the moment. On this track we’re losing a bit more in the slow corners, but things change from one weekend to another, so we’re not doing great.” The balance is delicate — at the slightest mistake, both Ferrari drivers find themselves with tyres out of the operating window and begin paying a steep price.
The inability to start from the front rows of the grid significantly damages their prospects for the race, be it Sprint or Grand Prix. The twenty laps of the Sprint race promise to be anything but easy for Leclerc and Hamilton, who will both be dealing with dirty air and a set of medium tyres that must be perfectly managed — an issue for much of the grid — to avoid a performance drop in the final laps.
The effort to find positives in Ferrari’s Friday is limited to Lewis Hamilton’s return to less worrying parts of the standings compared to previous rounds, with a two-tenths gap to Leclerc. “We’re not yet where we want to be,” Lewis commented, “but for me there were encouraging signs, especially in SQ1, where the car seemed more responsive. There’s still work to do, but we’re focused on optimizing the setup and continuing to look for improvements.”
Ferrari needs “pulp” — in other words, technical updates — which so far have been limited to the new floor introduced at the Sakhir weekend. The balance issue is starting to resemble a short operating window: fix one problem, and another emerges, all while the calendar keeps moving quickly and the gap in both championship standings continues to grow.
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