Red Saturday could be summed up in two words: mixed sensations. On the one hand there is a Carlos Sainz capable of bringing the SF-23 to second position, even if the passive from poleman Max Verstappen is still one of the important ones, on the other there is a Charles Leclerc penultimate at the end of an extremely disappointing performance , which can find an explanation only by assuming some problem of a technical nature.
On such a complex Saturday, with a treacherous track and volatile weather, the important thing was to get things done. On the day in which Fernando Alonso did not go beyond ninth place, thanks to a damaged undercarriage, Sergio Perez went out in Q2 and the Mercedes got into trouble, the Ferrarista did what he had to, bring the Red car to the front row with the goal of confirming the podium also in the race in front of his home crowd.
However, the satisfaction for this second position cannot fail to collide with the bitterness for a Charles Leclerc who was not even able to pass Q1, slowed down by problems not yet specified: “Totally mixed feelings after qualifying because a car is in the front row. I’m sure it’s Carlos’s best qualifying since the start of the season, an important step for him too considering we’ve brought some updates here,” explained the Ferrari Team Principal in an interview with Sky Italia.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images
“They’ve worked a lot at the factory in the last few weeks and I think it’s the best reward for us, but it’s also important for him. It was more difficult on the other side of the pits, even after the end of free practice Charles complained about the car on the left-hand corners, we still don’t understand what happened”.
Vasseur explained that the data clearly showed that there was something not working correctly, with the team realistically taking the car apart during the day to analyze the situation in depth and understand what the problem was: “There must have been something broken on the car, I trust Charles’ feelings because we’ve known each other for years. Right away he said he had a problem with the car. If we look at the data it is quite clear that something is wrong. I’ve already talked about it with Charles, it wasn’t just the last part of the track, but also the first corners on the left and he was already complaining about the car. Now we have to look at the data,” added the Frenchman.
Looking beyond qualification, the focus is mostly on what could happen tomorrow, a real test bed for the updated SF-23. Basically on the flying lap the Prancing Horse car has always behaved well, also collecting outstanding results, while in the race it showed greater difficulties.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
The package brought to Barcelona represents the first evolutionary step and, although it is true that the main rivals will start in the middle of the group, making the comeback much more complex, an aspect that will undoubtedly partially cover the pace, the hope is to see tangible improvements: ” We are satisfied. More than the step we took today, above all because we are opening up options for future development. It wasn’t easy today, the wind was fickle, when you bring new elements it’s better to have constant conditions”.
“Yesterday I think we did a decent job [per quanto riguarda il passo gara], but the reality of the race will be tomorrow. I think the track temperature will be much lower and we will see where we are. But I’m quite optimistic because we did a good job yesterday,” added Vasseur.
Despite the recent changes that brought the layout back to the old configuration as regards the last two corners, according to the Team Principal the Catalan track still represents an excellent test bench for assessing the effectiveness of the updates, which will pave the way for further innovations that they will arrive in the next appointments.
“We know that Barcelona is quite representative, there is a good mix of fast and slow corners, if you do well in Barcelona you do well everywhere. We clearly need to work even more on the package to try and improve the overall level of the car. We won’t be bringing updates every week because some tracks are more difficult than others, but we will be bringing new parts pretty soon.”
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