Carlos Sainz wants to review the fight with Charles Leclerc at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix after feeling both lost positions focusing on each other. The two Ferrari teammates had a small collision in the Sprint on Saturday, with Leclerc …
Carlos Sainz wants to review the fight with Charles Leclerc at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix after feeling both lost positions focusing on each other.
The two Ferrari teammates had a small collision in the Sprint on Saturday, with Leclerc saying he felt Sainz had crossed the line in the way they race each other but expected the issue to be resolved easily with pre-race discussions. However, Turn 1 on the opening lap then saw Leclerc appear to run Sainz wide and both George Russell and Nico Hulkenberg were able to take advantage.
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“A bit of a tough race for us,” Sainz said. “First of all I think we need to review the start because we had a strange line there through Turn 1 and Turn 2, which meant the Mercedes and the Haas passed both Charles and I which cost us probably a bit of race time.
“We had an issue there at the start with both cars going wide and two cars that shouldn’t overtake us overlook us. From then on we had to stop very early for the hard (tire).
“The timing of the safety car wasn’t ideal, because everyone could put on a new tire in front of me and I was left with a very old tire for the last stint and I had to nurse the tire home for a P5. Considering all this, I think P5 was the maximum, so not too bad.”
When pushed on whether he felt Leclerc had driven aggressively at the start in response to the incident in the Sprint, Sainz replied: “I prefer not to comment, but it’s obviously quite clear that it cost us both two positions so in the end it helped neither of us.”
Leclerc himself dismissed the incident as “just the start, it’s always very difficult with the tires, so it is what it is”, and from his point of view, the pair had already discussed Saturday’s incident and cleared the air, even though Sainz had originally disagreed that talks took place.
“Yes, we spoke briefly before qualifying and much longer after qualifying with Fred [Vasseur] and everything is fine,” Leclerc said. “I’m not going into details but, as I said, sometimes I went over the limit and sometimes he went over the limit, but it’s part of the game and now we’ve had a discussion and it’s fine.”
The first-ever FIA WEC race at Imola Sunday brings with it plenty of intrigue and a huge amount of local interest. A bumper crowd is expected trackside, with tens of thousands of fans set to pack the grandstands for the second round of the 2024 …
The first-ever FIA WEC race at Imola Sunday brings with it plenty of intrigue and a huge amount of local interest. A bumper crowd is expected trackside, with tens of thousands of fans set to pack the grandstands for the second round of the 2024 season.
For the locals, there is a smorgasbord of teams and drivers to root for in the top class, with the Le Mans-winning Ferrari AF Corse team now joined by Lamborghini with its new SC63 and the revived Isotta Fraschini brand. And they all have a different outlook and set of objectives for the six hours of racing to come.
At Ferrari AF Corse, the clear aim is to win on home soil, after it failed to do so last year in Monza in the aftermath of its historic victory in the centenary Le Mans. Ahead of qualifying, Ferrari has flexed its muscles and looks on track to achieve this target, topping all three practice sessions. It then finished 1-2-3 in qualifying with a dominant performance from all three 499Ps.
Antonio Fuoco, who set the fastest time, put in an impressive performance. Robert Shwartzman in the privately funded No. 83 499P, who took second spot on the grid, described the achievement as “undoubtedly excellent” ahead of just his second race in the championship.
Right now, looking at the qualifying results, few would bet against Ferrari winning Sunday at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. Nevertheless, Fuoco was keen to keep expectations in check in conversation with RACER ahead of the race, as winning here will require more than just raw pace. Traffic management, tire consistency and luck will all play a part, and the feeling at Ferrari is that Porsche and Toyota will be in the mix.
“I think it’s going to be tough because it’s a medium to low-speed track with hairpins and tight corners. It’s hard with the GT cars and it’s very different to the other tracks we will visit this year,” he said.
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He also feels that while there will be an element of a home-field advantage for Ferrari to feed off of, it is important that the team doesn’t get distracted by the occasion.
“It’s special to be here,” he added. “After Monza last year where it was quite special with the fans after Le Mans, I think on race day there will be many fans around the track to see us again. As always, as an Italian, this is an extra boost; they really push us all weekend.
“Last year we finished on the podium (in Monza) which was good, but for sure this weekend we will try to achieve the maximum. We need to be focused to do this because it’s going to be quite tight, and even the weather forecast looks unclear.”
Ferrari’s history in yellow is also an ace up the Italian marque’s sleeve the weekend at Imola. Motorsport Images
A key difference this year to last year’s outing at the “Temple of Speed” is that AF Corse has the benefit of its third 499P, which only increases its chances of a strong result each weekend.
In Qatar, Shwartzman, Yifei Ye and Robert Kubica finished fourth and ahead of both factory cars on debut, providing proof that the No. 83 is not here simply to fill a space on the grid or play second fiddle to the works crews.
“We try to work together as a group and having Robert (Kubica) as part of the team, a driver with a lot of experience, is good for us,” Fuoco responded when asked about the impact that having a third 499P has on race preparation. “We work as a team, share all the information and put it all together.”
Lamborghini, meanwhile, is focused on scoring its first set of WEC points after the SC63 finished 13th on its global debut in the season opener and qualified 16th Saturday. Here, racing on a circuit that it tested on prior to race week, Iron Lynx team principal Andrea Piccini feels confident it will close the performance gap once the green flag drops.
Don’t let the clouds fool you; Lamborghini is staring down their best opportunity yet. They’ve already tested at Imola… Motorsport Images
“This is such a different track to Qatar, which is super flat, and Sebring which is so bumpy. You come here, it’s a super downforce circuit with a lot of curbs, fast entries, and quick changes of direction.” Piccini told RACER.
“It’s a challenge and we have to be realistic. This is a track we have tested on already and we saw the car was competitive in practice. I think this is one of the races where we have the best chance of a good result. I don’t think it’s possible to fight for the podium, but we can fight to score important points for the championship.
“We hope to be fighting closer to the front at Le Mans (in June). But that’s a very high-speed circuit and we don’t know where we will be for a circuit like that. So until the test day there, we just need to prepare as best we can by maximizing what we have here.”
Isotta Fraschini, on the other hand, has a more modest goal of simply finishing the race.
During Qatar week, Isotta took a cautious approach to the track action, treating it as an extended test session before retiring after six hours with a front-suspension issue. Here, with the hybrid system now functioning as intended and the suspension issue diagnosed and rectified, its level of expectation has been raised.
On the pace front, while the Tipo 6-C hasn’t set times capable of challenging the cars at the sharp end of the field ahead of the race this week, it came significantly closer than it ever did at the Lusail circuit during practice.
The team, though, left the circuit Saturday night concerned by its qualifying run. Driver Jean-Karl Vernay told RACER the team was left confused by the results sheet, unable to achieve better lap times than it set in practice despite running with no traffic, low fuel and with new tires. The Frenchman pushed hard, only to end up 4s off pole and dead last.
More of the same from Isotta Fraschini on home soil? So far it looks to be so. Motorsport Images
“It was frustrating,” he said. “Our race pace is good, though we know we are still behind. Yet this afternoon in qualifying — we don’t understand it — we didn’t make a huge step with our setup and our fastest lap of the week came yesterday morning. We were able to do a 1m32.5s after just eight laps on a track I haven’t been to since 2017 (a whole second quicker than the lap in qualifying).”
Like Iron Lynx, the reason everyone within the Isotta organization appears more relaxed is because they have been able to draw from testing experience at Imola during the development phase of the car. This allowed the Duqueine-supported team to head into the first free practice at Imola with a baseline setup to build on.
“We are working hard, taking steps, but the level is so high,” admitted Vernay. “We are motivated as a small team. This is a super-demanding track, but it’s cool to drive. We are looking OK I think. We made a step since Qatar, and we are looking good.
“Qatar was a test session, really — a difficult first meeting. As our car is an LMH car, we have our own hybrid system and it took us a lot of time to ensure it was legal for the FIA. We lost a lot of time in the Prologue because of that, so we didn’t have much time to prepare.
“Since then we haven’t tested but we have done a lot of work at the factory to prepare the car for this weekend. They’ve done a great job because, out of the box here, we have been closer to the front. We are fighting against big guys with more financial support.
“We are going to do all we can now to show we deserve to be here.”
Ferrari’s trio of 499Ps put in a dominant performance during qualifying for the 6 Hours of Imola, finishing 1-2-3 in Hypercar Hyperpole. The Italian brand’s charge was led by Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 499P, who snatched pole position by …
Ferrari’s trio of 499Ps put in a dominant performance during qualifying for the 6 Hours of Imola, finishing 1-2-3 in Hypercar Hyperpole.
The Italian brand’s charge was led by Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 499P, who snatched pole position by four-tenths with a rapid 1m29.466s to lap the circuit more than a second quicker than anyone in practice.
“It was amazing. To be P1-2-3 in front of the Tifosi. We now have to do our best tomorrow,” said Fuoco.
Behind, the No. 83 privately-funded Ferrari ended up second after a standout drive from Robert Swartzman, who also dipped into the 1m 29s with a time fractionally quicker than Alessandro Pier Guidi in the sister No. 51 factory car that ended up third.
The trio of Ferrari 499Ps were the only cars to set sub 1m30 laps. Best of the rest were the two factory Porsche 963s, which ended up fourth and fifth, the No. 6 and No. 5 sixth and nine-tenths shy of pole respectively.
Toyota pushed hard with its GR010 HYBRIDs, but Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 7 could only manage sixth, while Brendon Hartley ended up losing a fast lap to a spin at Turn 7 and ended up eighth.
The qualifying session for the Hypercars prior to Hyperpole eliminated a number of significant cars. On the wrong side of the cut-off line were the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche and Cadillac V-Series.R which will start 11th and 12th.
Both new Peugeot 9X8s and the two Alpines also failed to make it into the fight for pole position, as did the Lamborghini SC63 and Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6-C ahead of their home race.
“We are happy to be here with the new car but we can see the pace in Imola is very fast. We would have loved to have been in Hyperpole but we are focused on the race,” said Jean-Marc Finot, vp of Stellantis Motorsport.
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The qualifying session was interrupted by a spinning Dries Vanthoor in the No. 15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. His error caused a red flag with just under two minutes remaining, setting up a dash to set a final flying lap.
Vanthoor and his teammates Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann will start 13th, as he was not allowed to rejoin the session and attempt to improve his time.
Prior to the Hypercar sessions, the Qatar-winning Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche took LMGT3 pole after a dominant performance from Alex Malykhin in Hyperpole. The Belarusian set a 1m42.365s to go almost seven-tenths quicker than the other Bronze drivers that made it into the top-10 shootout.
Alex Malykhin overcame Manthey Pure Rxcing success ballast to claim LMGT3 pole. Motorsport Images
“It’s a really good day for us,” said Malykhin, whose performance was particularly impressive considering the Pure Rxcing Porsche is carrying success ballast for winning in Qatar. “All my laps were clean and the team did a great job setting up the car.”
Ian James came closest in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. He set a 1m43.058s to take the second spot on the front row, coincidentally in the car that finished second behind the No. 92 Porsche in Round 1.
The two WRT BMW M4 GT3s were next, with Ahmad Al Harthy putting the No. 46 crew third with a 1m43.099s. He will start alongside Darren Leung who set a near-identical time in the No. 31 sister car.
The third row on the grid in LMGT3 will be occupied by the Iron Dames Lamborghini and No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang after efforts from Sarah Bovy and Giorgio Roda respectively.
Prior to Hyperpole for the 18 LMGT3 cars, the big headline was the lack of pace from TF Sport’s Corvettes in the first session, which were quick throughout practice but failed to get into the top 10. The No. 81 Z06 LMGT3.R of Qatar pole winner Tom Van Rompuy ended up 11th, missing the cut by under two tenths, while the No. 82 ended up 13th.
“This weekend we don’t have the package to go for pole, but let’s hope we have good race pace,” admitted a disappointed Van Rompuy. “It’s the opposite to last time where we had good qualifying pace but struggled with race pace and technical issues.”
Other notable drivers that failed to make it to the shootout were Proton Competition’s Ryan Hardwick, D’Station Racing’s Clement Mateu and both bronze drivers in the AKKODIS ASP Lexus RC F GT3s.
Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz crossed the line in how hard he was fighting during the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix but expects to be able to clear the air with his teammate ahead of Sunday’s race. Sainz sustained damage in contact with …
Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz crossed the line in how hard he was fighting during the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix but expects to be able to clear the air with his teammate ahead of Sunday’s race.
Sainz sustained damage in contact with Fernando Alonso late in the Sprint, an incident that saw Leclerc able to attack his teammate into the penultimate corner later in the same lap. With Leclerc on the outside of the hairpin, Sainz ran deep and made contact with the other Ferrari, forcing Leclerc wide in a move that he believes was too aggressive between teammates.
“I think so (Sainz crossed the line),” Leclerc said. “But to be honest, I have crossed the line also myself in the past, and when this happens, we normally have a discussion, we clear the air, which we went through that in the past already and it went really well. So I have no worries that it will be the case also this weekend, but today he went a bit over the limit.
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“A contact between us two, being in a different race situation because I had saved quite a bit the tires… I had good pace at the end, it was a bit of a shame we lost that gap to [Sergio] Perez and couldn’t go and take him. But it’s like this, at the end, P4, it could have been P3, one point, you can always do better.”
Sainz says he will apologize if he went too far in his defensive move against Leclerc but pointed to the earlier incident with Alonso as the catalyst for his car being compromised.
“I think I did a good start, I was pushing Max [Verstappen] hard at the beginning because I knew if I was passing him, I had a strong chance of winning the race,” Sainz said. “That probably killed my tires a bit and I was managing for the rest of the race. Until I got Fernando, and then behind Fernando, I did a really good move around the outside of Turn 7.
“Then he decided to be a bit all or nothing into me into Turn 9, which cost us both the race. I picked up damage and a lot of dirt in my tire from that optimistic move. And then yeah, from there on, I was sliding around with the damage on my car and dirt on my tires.
“I was doing everything I could to defend and sliding maybe, had a bit of a moment there with Charles. I apologize if I did something over the limit, but we were all racing really hard today, and I was doing my best to keep it under control out there.”
Leclerc and Sainz went on to qualify in sixth and seventh respectively for the grand prix on Sunday, although Sainz crashed to bring out red flags in Q2 before continuing, and his result is under protest from Aston Martin.
The story so far for Ferrari on home soil at Imola in the WEC’s Hypercar class has been a positive one, with three fastest laps in three practice sessions. Heading into qualifying at Imola later today, the 499P appears to be the car to beat. While …
The story so far for Ferrari on home soil at Imola in the WEC’s Hypercar class has been a positive one, with three fastest laps in three practice sessions. Heading into qualifying at Imola later today, the 499P appears to be the car to beat.
While Antonio Fuoco was unable to dip into the 1m30s and set the quickest lap of the week so far, a 1m31.238 was enough to place the No. 50 factory Ferrari at the top of the pile in the sunshine during Free Practice 3.
“It’s looking quite good. I think for qualifying we will stick with the medium tires if it stays dry,” Fuoco said.
The other two 499Ps ended up at the sharp end by the end of the session and within half a second of the No. 50, but fourth (No. 83) and sixth (No. 51) after encouraging laps from the pair of BMW M Hybrid V8s that finished the 60-minute session second and third, and the No. 5 Porsche Penske 963 that slotted in fifth.
For BMW this was the first real flash of pace from its M Hybrid V8s this season, the No. 15 setting the better time of the two after a 1m31.272s from Dries Vanthoor. It’s still early days, and no points are awarded for fast laps in practice, but this performance should act as a confidence boost for the WRT-run team ahead of its second race in Hypercar tomorrow.
The remaining spaces in the top 10 were filled by the two Toyotas, the sister Penske Porsche and the No. 12 JOTA 963.
It wasn’t a clean session for the 19 runners in Hypercar. Alessandro Pier Guidi in the No. 51 Ferrari found himself caught out twice. The first time came at Turn 6 on his out-lap, the Italian spinning on the exit of the corner after losing the rear. Moments later he found himself running through the gravel at Rivazza after locking the rear tires in the braking zone.
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Pier Guidi wasn’t the only driver to end up off track at Turn 18, as the session was red-flagged with a few minutes remaining when Paul Di Resta in the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 2024 also went straight on and ended up beached in the kitty litter. Thankfully, he avoided contact with the tire wall.
In LMGT3 it was a 1-2 for Aston Martin, with D’Station’s Vantage claiming the top spot late in the session after a 1m42.474s from Marco Sorensen. The No. 27 from Heart of Racing would have its best time set by Daniel Mancinelli midway through the session.
Team WRT’s No. 31 M4 GT3 would return to the pit lane third fastest following a 1m43.028s from Augusto Farfus, who was a tenth faster than Alex Malykhin in the Qatar-winning No. 92 Manthey Pure Rxcing Porsche and the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren GT3 EVO that completed the top five.
After topping both sessions yesterday, TF Sport’s Corvette crews found themselves ninth and 16th ahead of the fight for pole position. However, the 1m49.9s from Charlie Eastwood in FP2 is still the fastest lap of the weekend.
Qualifying is set to get underway at 2:45pm local time.
The first practice session for the FIA World Endurance Championship at Imola featured Ferrari at the top of the timing screens – but with the privateer No. 83 499P on top, a tenth and a half up on the No. 50 from the factory team. The best time of …
The first practice session for the FIA World Endurance Championship at Imola featured Ferrari at the top of the timing screens — but with the privateer No. 83 499P on top, a tenth and a half up on the No. 50 from the factory team.
The best time of the 90-minute run came from Yifei Ye, who toured the Italian circuit in 1m32.347s early in the session. Antonio Fuoco set the best lap in the No. 50.
The session also provided a fast start for Peugeot’s new 9X8, with the No. 93 finishing up third and 0.6s off following an effort from Mikkel Jensen, making it one of only three cars to set sub-1m32s times.
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Lamborghini Iron Lynx’s performance with the SC63 was also encouraging. Mirko Bortolotti set a 1m32.015 sto go fourth ahead of the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, which snuck into the top five with a 1m32.065s from Antonio Giovanazzi.
Qatar-winning brand Porsche features in the top half of the classification too, with Proton’s 963 setting the best time of the quartet, a 1m32.253s to go sixth and fractionally faster than the two Penske Porsches that ended up seventh and eighth.
Toyota’s GR010 HYBRIDs rounded out the top 10, while further down the order Isotta Fraschini showed signs of progress by finishing 14th fastest. The Tipo6-C was quicker than the two Alpines, the Cadillac, a WRT BMW and the No. 38 JOTA Porsche that completed just four laps.
In LMGT3 it was TF Sport that set the early benchmark times, its pair of Corvette Z06 LMGT3.Rs — which tested at the circuit in the build-up to this event – finishing up first and second. Daniel Juncadella was fastest in the No. 82 with his 1m42.112s, while Charlie Eastwood steered the No. 81 to a 1m42.719s.
Best of the rest was the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, which ended up third in the order, under a tenth up on the No. 46 Team WRT BMW that took fourth and marginally quicker than the No. 55 sister Ferrari that managed fifth.
Further down the list, Manthey Pure Rxcing’s Porsche, which won the Qatar race, would slot in 13th. The car, which is carrying success ballast as a result of its victory, returned to its garage with a 1m43.871s from Joel Sturm its best lap.
Free Practice 2 is scheduled to get underway this afternoon at 5:15 local time.
Carlos Sainz says any impression that Ferrari has made a significant improvement this year on strategy is purely down to its stronger car, having made incremental gains in other areas. Ferrari has maximized its race weekends so far this season, …
Carlos Sainz says any impression that Ferrari has made a significant improvement this year on strategy is purely down to its stronger car, having made incremental gains in other areas.
Ferrari has maximized its race weekends so far this season, taking a one-two in Melbourne and finishing third and fourth behind Red Bull in both Bahrain and Japan. In Jeddah, Charles Leclerc was third behind the Red Bulls while Ollie Bearman finished seventh when filling in for the sidelined Sainz, but the Spaniard says the influence of the quality of a car on strategy has been underestimated.
“I think we’ve made progress on strategy over the last three years, progressively, but if you see a jump this year on strategy, it’s purely down to the car,” Sainz said. “Just having a car that allows you to have flexibility on strategy is something that last year we couldn’t have.
“So, we were boxed in to stop at certain laps. We couldn’t extend. We had so much deg that it looked always like people could extend and then come back on us on a harder tire. Last year, we were just zero flexible and we couldn’t do anything without racing. So it looked like we were not getting the strategy right a lot of times.
“But when you have a car that is better on tires, two drivers that can push on the car more often and you have that extra flexibility, your strategy also looks better. And with this, I’m not underestimating the progress we’ve done, it’s just I really think this helps a lot.”
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Sainz similarly attributes his own strong results to the 2024 car, having finished on the podium in all three races he has participated in this year, including the win in Melbourne.
“We just simply improved the car,” he said. “People also might think I’m in a better moment driving and everything, but the reality is just in Formula 1, a car is very important. I’m driving at a high level, but at the same time, having a car that just allows you to go a bit longer, allows you to be a bit closer in dirty air and play around a bit more with strategy, just allows you to shine a bit more.
“That’s why it’s important in the career of a driver to be in a car [like this], because last year in the races we looked like we were always going backwards, always defending. We were terrible with tire management and that was difficult to do good races. This year, suddenly three races, two podiums, a lot of overtaking, a win. It’s a completely different picture.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the Japanese Grand Prix highlighted the amount of progress the team has made with its high-speed performance in 2024. Carlos Sainz finished third and Charles Leclerc fourth behind the two Red Bulls on a …
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the Japanese Grand Prix highlighted the amount of progress the team has made with its high-speed performance in 2024.
Carlos Sainz finished third and Charles Leclerc fourth behind the two Red Bulls on a Suzuka track where Leclerc was some 44 seconds adrift of Max Verstappen six months ago. With Sainz just over 20s off Verstappen last Sunday, Vasseur says the improvements are clear to see even on tracks where Ferrari is not able to challenge for victory.
“I think we made a huge step forward on the high speed compared to last year, and for sure Suzuka is a good example,” Vasseur said. “On the tire management, we have our weaknesses — for sure it was a compromise [to improve it]. You take from somewhere and then somewhere else…
“But overall, if you compare with Red Bull, the last four events last year and the first four events this season, it’s a decent step forward. For sure they are a little bit ahead, but the target for us is to put them under pressure, because with pressure you are doing more mistakes.”
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Vasseur has previously highlighted a strength of Ferrari this year being in how predictable the car is, allowing the team to start each race weekend with a strong baseline setup and improve from that point. With the next round in China being the first sprint weekend of the year and featuring just one practice session, Vasseur says the signs are encouraging that it will play to that strength but doesn’t want his team taking anything for granted.
“What is a bit difficult on the format of China is with the tire allocation,” he said. “[In] one session, you have to choose which compound you will test on Friday. It means the anticipation of the weekend is crucial. Last year, the sprint races overall went well, but we still don’t know if it’s related to the format or the track layout.
“So far, we always had a good start to the weekend, and we have the capacity to be ready from the first session. It’s so tight… [last] weekend, we had four teams within one tenth. You don’t have to consider that what you did one weekend will be true the weekend after — you start from scratch next week. We have to keep this mindset.”
Carlos Sainz believes his third place in the Japanese Grand Prix provides a clear indication of the progress Ferrari has made over the past six months. At last year’s race at Suzuka – held in October – Sainz finished sixth, 50 seconds behind …
Carlos Sainz believes his third place in the Japanese Grand Prix provides a clear indication of the progress Ferrari has made over the past six months.
At last year’s race at Suzuka – held in October – Sainz finished sixth, 50 seconds behind race-winner Max Verstappen, while teammate Charles Leclerc was a further 44s off in fourth place. This time around, Sainz picked up another podium and was just under 21s away from Verstappen, with Leclerc close behind, and the Spaniard says it proves where Ferrari has been able to strengthen.
“It’s very satisfying,” Sainz said. “We exactly improved the car in the places that we wanted to improve it, and Suzuka proves it. Still, places like Suzuka, we are not as quick as the Red Bull, which is the target, but as soon as we bring a good upgrade to the car that goes in the right direction, hopefully it can get us closer.
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“But yeah, we’ve improved everywhere, and especially in the race pace. It also allows us to have more strategic flexibility, that last year we didn’t have. It allows me to go forward in the races and instead of looking in my mirrors all the time to offset myself with strategy and then overtake people, which is something that last year wasn’t on the cards at any point. So, I’m happy and it makes me enjoy racing more.”
Despite those positive signs that Ferrari is moving in the right direction, and his victory in Melbourne, Sainz says he never had any expectations that Red Bull could be challenged at Suzuka.
“We kind of knew our race pace was better than our qualifying pace,” he said. “Still probably not enough to go for a win because obviously starting P4 and given how good the race pace of the Red Bull is, it’s almost impossible to think about a win, but I was hopeful of achieving a podium that in the end we managed to achieve, even if it was a very tough race, very strategic.
“The track condition changed a lot through the race. We went from a very sunny track that we hadn’t had all weekend to a very cloudy track. The degradation went down a lot and you could push a lot more on the tires halfway through the race.
“This changed the whole situation quite a lot. At one point, I thought the podium wasn’t possible, but then with a new hard [tire], the pace was mega and I could get back onto the podium.”
Fred Vasseur says Ferrari’s confidence in its 2024 car means it can continue to put pressure on Red Bull and take advantage of any mistakes. Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix, leading home a Ferrari one-two to add to the podium finishes …
Fred Vasseur says Ferrari’s confidence in its 2024 car means it can continue to put pressure on Red Bull and take advantage of any mistakes.
Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix, leading home a Ferrari one-two to add to the podium finishes behind Red Bull that the team had achieved in the opening two rounds. While Max Verstappen retired in Melbourne, Vasseur says mistakes are more likely from Red Bull if Ferrari can be consistently putting pressure on, and he feels that is a realistic target given the form the Scuderia is showing so far.
“Confidence is a huge part of the result in this business, and I think we are building up the confidence over the last months,” Vasseur said. “It was already the case over the last part of the season last year. [Melbourne] I think is good evidence that when we are putting everything together – and I’m not sure that we will be able to do it every single weekend – we can put them a little bit under pressure.
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“When they are under pressure, then they will also do more mistakes. It means that we have to continue in this direction. We are much more confident of the fact that we can manage this kind of level, because from lap one on day one, we were there and it was quite smooth. It’s in this situation that we are doing the best car for the Sunday.”
Vasseur attributes that added confidence to the more predictable car that has been delivered this season, as it gives Ferrari more consistency both for the drivers behind the wheel but also to then add performance with upgrades.
“I think even last year it was like this,” he said. “We are ready quite soon into the weekend, but when you have small issues or reliability issues, or not a clean weekend, then you are losing time and when you are [chasing] after Red Bull you cannot lose one lap.
“From the beginning of the season we had very consistent sessions from FP1 to the qualifying. We were a bit disappointed (in Melbourne) after the qualifying because we had the feeling that we could have done a better job, but considering the race was more based on the tire management and tire deg then it was not a drama, and [the race] was a good example.
“I’m not focused at all on the performance of Red Bull, I’m focused on the performance of our car. We made a huge step forward, perhaps on the base of one lap it’s true but we were not nowhere last year on one lap pace.
“But we made a huge step, I think it’s more on the consistency between the two compounds. Between one stint and the other one the car is much easier to drive, much easier to read also for the drivers – and much easier to develop. It’s probably the biggest step that we did compared to last year, having something that we can have at least a good read of the car quite early in the weekend.”
