A team pole position. This immediately seemed to be the best possible definition to describe what Scuderia Ferrari managed to do in the qualifying session for the 2022 French Grand Prix this afternoon at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet.
During Q3, Carlos Sainz Jr. offered a tow to Charles Leclerc, helping his teammate a lot in the second sector, where the Red Bull cars had all the credentials to make a difference.
Carlos Sainz, who has a penalty that will force him to start from the penultimate position tomorrow after Ferrari had to mount a fresh power unit for the French weekend, helped Charles Leclerc in the two attempts in Q3. If the first of the two seemed to have no effect, the second was instead decisive and gave Charles the seventh pole of the 2022 Formula One season.
At the end of qualifying, Ferrari deputy team principal and racing director Laurent Mekies was interviewed by Sky Italia, sharing his thoughts on the exciting qualifying sessions for the French Grand Prix staged today at Paul Ricard.
“They did it perfectly as a team. For us it was a good day because it is a team result. It is never easy to complete that type of program so well, because it is very complex in terms of times and gaps between the cars. They were both great. Congratulations to Charles for pole, because we were quite behind Max here, and congratulations to Carlos because he went very fast in Q1 and Q2, but also for the execution of the work in Q3 that led to pole ” – Laurent Mekies explained.
If the idea of the tow was proposed by the team, its construction was instead the result of the work carried out by the two drivers who then perfectly implemented the plan studied this morning.
“We chose that spot to give Charles Leclerc the slipstream because we have very good drivers, they are incredible. We had thought about doing it before the chicane, but Carlos and Charles said they wanted to do it afterwards too, although it was much more risky. So we decided for some slipstream before the chicane and afterwards, which was much more risky. Their idea, so well done! “.
“Regarding tomorrow’s race, let’s never forget where we were just one year ago: it was the worst race of the year due to the high wear of the front axle. The pole is a test point compared to last year, but tomorrow it will still be more important. We have seen that Max is very strong in the race configuration, but our drivers are also very strong. Where will Carlos manage to finish? Here it is difficult to overtake, so it’s not easy to say. But I think it is plausible to think of the Top 6 “.
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If Ferrari was able to take advantage of a two-pronged strategy today to beat the RB18s of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, tomorrow it will be the Red Bull Racing drivers who will have the chance to fight together against Charles Leclerc. Laurent Mekies thinks the Dutchman’s pace on long runs will give the Milton Keynes team a small lead over the Reds, but the Maranello team looks ready to fight.
“The work done in Maranello for a year now, thinking about the difficulties we had last year, I think we can use it for tomorrow. But I honestly believe that Red Bull will have a small advantage tomorrow over us. We will be fighting with them. We are fighting on the details and I think it will be the same in this case as well. We will try to optimize everything with strategy and tire wear. They will be 2 on 1 tomorrow. It will be a big factor but it is part of the game, we knew that. But we think we will recover points with Carlos. It will be tough for Charles, but it is part of the game, we will have to learn how to extract everything in these moments and we are ready to fight “, concluded Ferrari’s sporting director.
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