It was a Friday to remember in Singapore for Ferrari, and against all odds. The Cavallino men expected to suffer on the Marina Bay citizen, which requires a high load configuration, but surprisingly the SF-23s found themselves monopolizing the first two positions, with Carlos Sainz ahead of Charles Leclerc by just a few thousandths .
A result that surprised the Spanish driver, who however also explained that this is a track that often offers surprises: “Yes, a little, but at the same time you always have to arrive in Singapore with a very open mind”, said Sainz .
“In the past we have seen very strange performance fluctuations on this track, because it is a very particular track and for now it seems to suit our car well and that it is going well for the way we started in FP1. So it looks good , but I think the track will change a lot for tomorrow, the grip will increase a lot and it’s all about finding the perfect set-up for tomorrow”, he added.
Despite this great start, the son of art does not think that the others will stand by and watch tomorrow, also because several teams have brought great innovations, while Ferrari has limited itself to refining its heavy-duty package.
“It really seems like there are teams that have made a lot of updates, so tomorrow they will fine-tune them, understand them better and find a lot of performance. As far as we’re concerned, we haven’t brought anything special, the front wing is just a small change compared to to what we had and we’re focusing on understanding our car here.”
Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“We tested a couple of things on the setup I wanted to try on this type of track and it seems to have worked and is going in the right direction. Let’s see if tomorrow we can do another good lap and be on the front row.”
On the Marina Bay track, tire management has always been fundamental, even in qualifying, because we need to avoid overheating them too much in view of T3. An aspect that hasn’t changed too much even with the latest changes to the track, which eliminated the double chicane near the stadium.
“You always push, but at the same time you always try to keep the cleanest lap possible and that’s the biggest challenge in Singapore. When it comes to qualifying you push hard, but it has to be a clean lap, when you mess up you always pay in the last sector. I think it will be the same, maybe a little easier on the tyres, but it will still be like this and this is what we are working on.”
The positive surprise of the day was Ferrari, while the negative one was Red Bull, with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen who never found the rhythm and ultimately finished in seventh and eighth position. According to Sainz, however, it is only a matter of time before the World Cup dominators can find a way to be competitive. In fact, at race pace they already are.
“If you look at their pace on the long run, they already looked like the strongest car, so once the lap pace is sorted out they will be there fighting for pole. Hopefully we can be in contention, but it looks like Aston, McLaren and Mercedes too should be in contention, so we have an exciting day ahead of us tomorrow and we hope we can make the best of it,” he concluded.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
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