Lights and shadows
Carlos Sainz’s fifth-place finish is the only partially joyful note of the Dutch weekend for Ferrari. The Maranello-based team, at the end of a rather complicated weekend, experienced several issues with Charles Leclerc’s car, forcing him to retire after a contact with Oscar Piastri heavily damaged his SF-23. The analysis of this Zandvoort afternoon is thus two-sided for the Prancing Horse’s team principal, Frederic Vasseur. The hope for all fans is that in seven days, on the home track of Monza, we might witness different performances.
“Overall, it was a chaotic weekend for everyone,” commented the head of the Ferrari garage to Sky Sport F microphones after the GP, “because the conditions were very difficult. Charles had an early contact with Piastri, damaging the front wing, and then he also damaged the underbody, something we couldn’t replace compared to the wing.” The absence of a retirement for #16, despite a clear drop in performance, depended on the hope for a red flag that only arrived towards the end of the race due to the bad weather hitting the circuit. “We were expecting a red flag to change everything,” Fred Vasseur confirmed, “but it didn’t come, and it was better to stop.”
Carlos Sainz’s grit, Charles Leclerc’s misfortune
“Carlos had a great first part of the race,” continued the red team principal, “but in the end, we didn’t have any new tires left. The set of intermediates had already been used in qualifying. He finished fifth and did a great stint, managing to keep Lewis and Norris behind. In these conditions, you can always consider that there was a chance to do better work but also to earn fewer points, so Carlos did a good job.” Analyzing the strategies, starting with Leclerc’s controversial first pit stop during the first lap, for which the mechanics weren’t prepared, Fred Vasseur confirmed that the driver’s call came too late.
“The decision to bring Charles in was late, but even so, it worked out well,” Fred Vasseur clarified, “because we did lose several seconds in the pit, but I believe we still gained more on the track by doing that extra lap on intermediates compared to dry tires. The decision was right, even if it was late. This weekend we saw many ups and downs, but it was like that for everyone even during the race. We saw completely different paces: Charles was in the conditions to do a good lap yesterday but went off track.”
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Heading to Monza
And now it’s time to think about the home race at Monza, eagerly awaited by all Italian fans: “The margins are so tight that you can go from 2nd-3rd place to 10th,” Fred Vasseur concluded, “and that means that at Monza, we’ll have to try to put everything together to do a good job, but it’s not just a matter of potential. We need to do our best work on the track and in Maranello. Not everything is perfect, but we’re improving and pushing, hiring many people, but we know we have to restructure the system, and the best thing is to keep working in a way that we’ll be ready for Monza as well.” – the French manager concluded.
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