Like his teammate Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz didn’t cover his disappointment with a session from which he had anticipated extra, particularly as the problems encountered in qualifying caught Ferrari off guard after a promising FP1 the place that they had been aggressive. Nonetheless, there’s additionally a notice of optimism for tomorrow, as Carlos Sainz believes there’s potential for marked enchancment.
The time set throughout FP1 got here underneath particular monitor situations, with the circuit hotter and wind depth larger than in qualifying. Furthermore, whereas Leclerc pushed exhausting to attain his time, Carlos Sainz appeared extra cautious in cornering.
Even so, the automobile felt good, and the car stability appeared to function inside a strong efficiency window. The hope was to extract a powerful end in qualifying, the place the SF-24 tends to wrestle, particularly when switching to comfortable tires and needing to maximise grip within the remaining section.
Carlos Sainz defined that he didn’t focus an excessive amount of on the FP1 instances, however the suggestions was nonetheless constructive when it comes to automobile stability: “I by no means attempt to learn an excessive amount of into FP1 since you by no means know the gasoline masses or engine modes the others are operating. The excellent news was that the automobile felt higher than anticipated when it comes to stability,” stated the Spaniard. Nonetheless, he admitted there have been nonetheless doubts concerning the qualifying end result.
A quick McLaren was anticipated, and this proved true, whereas Mercedes, on smoother asphalt, appeared capable of exploit the aerodynamic load that had beforehand precipitated bouncing points, forcing them to boost their trip peak and lose grip in high-speed corners.
Throughout qualifying, Carlos Sainz confronted two issues: visitors and understeer. “We approached qualifying already involved that our rivals is likely to be quick right here, and that’s precisely what we noticed. I feel we didn’t totally optimize our package deal. Even on a clear lap, I had loads of understeer, which made it very troublesome.”
Site visitors additionally performed a job within the Spaniard’s first run, as he encountered Max Verstappen forward of him whereas making an attempt his preliminary lap on comfortable tires. Max Verstappen was not pushing however as a substitute making ready his tires for a quick lap. With soiled air from Max Verstappen’s automobile, Carlos Sainz aborted his lap, barely disrupting his run plan in comparison with others.
“Sadly, I discovered myself in a state of affairs the place I did the primary and second sectors with Max Verstappen forward as he was making ready his tires, so I had numerous soiled air. Plus, the automobile’s stability wasn’t optimum. We had loads of understeer with the tires, making it exhausting to show the automobile.”
“I then needed to give the tires a breather for a few laps, and after I went for an additional lap, the understeer was nonetheless current. However I wanted to set a time, and that was sufficient for fourth place. It wasn’t straightforward underneath strain, and with this stability, it wasn’t easy as a result of it was straightforward to exceed monitor limits. Now we all know what’s lacking for tomorrow.”
The main target is on addressing or mitigating the understeer skilled all through qualifying, which turned much more pronounced in SQ3 with the comfortable tires. Moreover, Carlos Sainz needed to cope with the danger of exceeding monitor limits on his remaining try, given he hadn’t set a time on his first run.
“Principally, I couldn’t get the automobile to show all through the lap. It was a troublesome lap as a result of it was my solely probability to set a time, so I couldn’t take too many dangers with monitor limits. Since I misplaced the earlier lap, I simply had to verify I set a time. I feel tomorrow we’ll have the potential to enhance the automobile considerably, particularly with the comfortable tires, and this could permit us to make progress,” Carlos Sainz added. After the dash race, groups could have a window to regulate setups, so what Ferrari learns right this moment might show essential.
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