F1 | Ferrari believes in “two against one” to try to challenge Max

At the beginning of the weekend, Lando Norris’ advanced McLaren seemed to be able to worry even Max Verstappen. Between the Sprint race and the Grand Prix qualifying, it was Ferrari who took back the stage, placing Leclerc and Sainz behind the Red Bull number 1 with a very solid performance.

It wasn’t obvious, the SF24 is still in the original version, but while waiting for the updates that will arrive in the next stage in Imola, everything seems to be there to be able to leave Miami with a good stage haul.

After the Sprint race, expectations for qualifying were high. Second and third positions represent a basis on which to build a good race, but Frederic Vasseur was not entirely satisfied at the end of qualifying.

“There is a slight sense of frustration because we hoped to obtain a better result – confirmed the Scuderia team principal – but we saw that all the teams in Q3 had difficulty putting together a clean lap, but we can say that our preparation for the fast laps went well.”

The 141 thousandths that separated the provisional poleman Verstappen from Leclerc at the end of the first run of Q3 convinced Charles and the Scuderia garage that dreaming was not forbidden in the final assault. “I went all-in – admitted the Monegasque – but the conditions have changed. I don’t know if it was a question of wind or track, but in the second timed lap almost no one improved. However, I am happy with the second position and the tire preparation in the out-lap.”

Overall, Ferrari’s performance was better than that seen two weeks ago in China. In the low speed sections the SF24 still suffers, but in Miami the problem had a lesser impact than in Shanghai. “There are still things we don’t understand – admitted Leclerc – but the feeling was undoubtedly better than two weeks ago”.

The attention is now entirely on the 57 laps of the race. The taste of the sprint race confirmed that Verstappen has something more in terms of race pace, but it is a small margin. “It seems that our race pace is a little slower than Max’s – confirmed Vasseur – so the most important thing will be to do a good first lap and try to take advantage of the DRS, which is very strong on this track”.

Ferrari will also be able to count on Sainz, third in qualifying thanks to a time 5 thousandths faster than Perez. “When Max starts in front it’s always difficult to find a way to beat him – explained Carlos – but if at the end of the first laps Charles and I maintain our positions we will have the chance to challenge Max with two single-seaters”.

In other scenarios the “two against one” allows you to differentiate strategies, but in Miami the margins are very small. The race will be a one-stop race, and even regarding the choice of compounds there don’t seem to be many variations to the announced medium-soft. “Unfortunately the compounds brought to the track this weekend are a bit conservative – admitted Sainz – and this takes away possibilities on the strategy front”. However, Leclerc said he was confident about some changes made to the setup of the car after the Sprint race. “We should have made a step forward, we’ll see.”

In yesterday’s race Sainz was unable to overtake Ricciardo’s Racing Bulls, even when Daniel did not have DRS available, but Carlos himself confirmed that he did not fear the same situation in today’s Grand Prix.

“It’s a question of setup choices – explained Carlos – those made on Daniel’s car allowed him to have a lot of acceleration out of low-speed corners, and this made him difficult to overtake. But I shouldn’t have been in that position if qualifying for the Sprint race had gone the right way. In the Grand Prix I will start from a better position, and I will have to compete against opponents who have similar levels of aerodynamic load and top speed to ours. So I expect the overall scenario will be better.”

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Director, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Erik Junius