F1 | Ferrari: competitive red in Canada in all conditions

Flashes of Ferrari on the capricious Canadian Friday. At the end of the first day of activity on the track, the rankings say little due to the rain that fell intermittently during both sessions.

To try to evaluate the performance level of the single-seaters, only a few laps are available, mostly completed in the FP1 session, data which confirms a good start to the weekend by the Scuderia. In the first free practice session, Sainz and Leclerc had five final laps available on soft tyres, and both (Carlos second and Charles third, despite the traffic) confirmed they were comfortable with the car.

In the FP2 session the track was slick from minute ten until mid-session, a period of time in which the two Ferraris took to the track with medium tyres. Both Sainz and Leclerc took several laps to bring the tires up to temperature, then Charles set an interesting time (1’16”556), which remained the best with the ‘yellow’ compound and fourth overall.
“Today on the track there wasn’t much to take home in terms of elements to analyze – commented Leclerc – the asphalt conditions were very different every time we left the pits. We completed a fair number of laps, and this is positive, we confirmed ourselves to be fast in all conditions and if we are not in the top positions it is only because we were not lapping at the moment in which the track proved to be the most performing”.

The positive impression came above all from the good performance seen by Ferrari in all conditions. The final laps of FP2 (with intermediate tyres) also saw Leclerc and Sainz set very fast times. “Despite the changing conditions of the asphalt we managed to lap a lot, taking home some interesting laps with both the dry and intermediate compounds – confirmed Sainz – obviously it’s not easy to draw conclusions from today, we have to continue to concentrate on ourselves to be best prepared for tomorrow’s qualifying.”

If the bad weather grants a respite guaranteeing a slick track in FP3, Ferrari’s plan is to focus on preparing for qualifying. A choice that can be deduced from the decision to give up a set of medium tires (Sainz and Leclerc have two against the three of the two Red Bull drivers) giving priority to the soft ones (six sets available to the Ferrari drivers, compared to the five of Verstappen and Perez).

Leclerc hopes that the day will not be characterized by changes in conditions as it was yesterday. “If the FP3 session is held in the wet and then qualifying were to be in the dry it would mean facing more unknowns – explained Charles – but I am still confident, the basic setup immediately seemed good to me, I think we will still be ready to face every type of condition.”