Ferrari books DRS train, Vasseur: “Surprised by bouncing”

Ferrari books the seat on the DRS train

Second row with Carlos Sainz and third row with Charles Leclerc: the cancellation of Oscar Piastri’s time made Saturday at the Red Bull Ring less bitter for the Ferrariwho on the hills of Styria is struggling with the phenomenon of bouncing, especially in the last sector on high-speed curves.

After the Sprint especially Charles Leclerc had invoked a change of direction to try to take some risks to not be so slow anymore and the Monegasque tried to attack the third fastest time by blocking in Turn 4 and then going straight over the kerb in Turn 9 probably damaging the floor.

Frederic Vasseur to the microphones of Sky Sports F1 commented on a complicated day for Ferrari. The team principal is convinced that he can be in the running for the podium in tomorrow’s race: “We made a small step forward compared to yesterday, but it’s certainly not enough because we wanted to be further ahead on the grid. Overall I think we made a step forward, Charles was doing a good lap, then he got stuck in Turn 4, but before that moment he was much faster than the previous attempt. This means it was a good lap, then clearly the aim is to finish the lap and not have a good lap until Turn-4, but we are in a better condition than yesterday. We saw today that there is a kind of DRS train, and if you take the right train you can stay in that train. I imagine that tomorrow there will be a lot of battle on the first lap, and clearly the race will be different to the Sprint because strategy comes into play, so you can also play at that level, but it is clear that the DRS train has a huge effect. We’re talking almost 6 tenths per lap, and this is the gap between second and tenth position. This means that if you take the right train you can stay in the DRS which is very powerful. We definitely solved the brake temperature issue, but I think everyone had this issue this morning because once you get into the DRS train you overheat everything and you have to manage the pace and the lift and coast. The negative surprise yesterday was the bouncing that went beyond expectations, and this damaged the drivers in the high-speed corners between Turn-7 and Turn-10. Today we put things right a little even if it’s not enough, but we’re getting closer.”