Laurent Mekies on "positive and negative aspects" of Leclerc

Laurent Mekies on “positive and negative aspects” of Leclerc – Sainz internal duel in Sprint race. Mekies on Ferrari's performance in Sprint race.

Despite Max Verstappen’s victory in Austria, Ferrari managed to find positive aspects at the end of the Saturday Sprint race at the Red Bull Ring, a result which still gives hope for the Sunday main race.

Although the Maranello team lost precious time due to the internal battle between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, for Ferrari it would still have been very difficult to defeat the Dutchman today, but in the long run – and especially with hope of a good strategy – the outcome of the Austrian Grand Prix can still be a favourable one for the Italian side:

“The positive news of this Sprint is having seen our cars very close to Max in terms of absolute pace” – explained Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies after the Sprint race in Spielberg – “We had feedback on qualifying and we knew we were very close. It’s good thinking about tomorrow which, in racing conditions, we were running at the same pace. The race will be long, we know we have the pace to fight” – he added.

“There are always positive and negative aspects from an internal battle” – added Laurent Mekies referring to the battle between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the first laps of the Sprint race – “The positive side is to have two very competitive drivers who could keep a very high pace. Then you can’t control a start or what happens on the first lap, you would never be able to. There are dynamics specific to each race and they have overtaken each other a couple of times. Charles was trying to save tires in the first phase of the race and so that’s something we will work on better with both drivers for tomorrow’s race. Max initially used his tires to break away from the DRS zone. It’s a compromise between how kind you are with the tire in the first few laps and how much you can attack at the end. He certainly chose a compromise different from ours. We went slower at the beginning and then got closer at the end of the stint. Also tomorrow on tracks like this with high degradation it will be something we will focus on every stint to try to be ahead at the end of the race. We are undoubtedly in a position to fight, but they are very strong. Sergio Perez has recovered and will be part of the fight tomorrow. It will be a two against two, but we are here for that, the car is competitive again on this track.” – Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies concluded.