It was a very intense Friday for Ferrari at Silverstone. The results of the two free practice sessions are destined to be a crossroads not only for the British Grand Prix weekend, but also in view of the upcoming events.
The one under special observation was the last package of updates brought to the track over the Barcelona weekend, which proved to be not free from problems both over the weekend of Montmelo and the following one in Spielberg. At Silverstone it came under scrutiny, with a comparison test between Leclerc’s car, which ran with the ‘Barcelona’ configuration, and that of Sainz, who returned to the package used up to Montreal.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
In FP2, Leclerc was the fastest, but not by a clear margin. The difference in performance between the two cars was not enough to have a clear scenario, complicating the work of the engineers a bit, who are expected to have a long evening of analysis.
In the qualifying simulation the time difference between Leclerc (fifth) and Sainz (eighth) was 0”099, on the race pace Leclerc covered ten laps with medium tyres lapping at a pace of 1’32”559, while Sainz, after an initial run with soft tyres, subsequently fitted the medium tyres covering eight laps at a pace of 1’32”447. Everything remains within the margin of one tenth.
“The day was useful,” Leclerc commented, “there will be a lot of analysis to do before making a decision for tomorrow. Overall, however, we were not particularly fast, it seems that Red Bull and McLaren are much further ahead this weekend, but I hope I’m wrong.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Erik Junius
Leclerc’s impression was confirmed by Sainz: “McLaren certainly seems to be a step ahead, we’ve seen that in the last two weekends and I feel it will be the same this weekend. Obviously we are trying to do everything we can to understand this package and how to make it faster, but at the moment McLaren is in a class of its own.”
The Scuderia’s engineers could also bet on the weather. The problem that emerged on Leclerc’s car was, as expected, bouncing, clearly visible in the fastest sections. In case of rain, with lower average speeds, the bouncing becomes less impactful and the aerodynamic load (greater on the car tested by Leclerc) would be an important advantage in the slow corners.
If, however, the track remains dry, the prospect for Ferrari does not seem to be different from that of Barcelona and Spielberg, that is, fourth place even behind Mercedes. On Friday at Silverstone, there was a ‘ferrarina’ who put herself under the spotlight.
The exploit of Nico Hulkenberg, surprisingly fourth in the qualifying simulation, has increased the question marks on the Scuderia’s work. The problem for Ferrari does not seem to be the correlation with the wind tunnel, shared with Haas, which immediately found the expected feedback on the track…
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