For Ferrari, the first day of track activity after the summer break was a rude awakening. Charles Leclerc in ninth position in the qualifying simulation and very far from the top positions at the end of the long-runs, Carlos Sainz, stopped in FP2 after 7 laps due to a transmission problem.
It was not the Friday the Scuderia was hoping for. After all, miracles in Formula 1 have never existed, to address the drop in performance recorded since the beginning of the summer, updates are needed that were not received at Zandvoort, and the reality is what the track proposed.
The bad news, in this case unexpected, was Sainz’s stop. Carlos missed practically the entire afternoon session, and considering that in FP1 the laps done with slicks were a handful, Sainz runs the risk of arriving at the race without references.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
If the weather forecast predicting rain for tomorrow is confirmed, Carlos will ‘discover’ the behaviour of the car with slicks in Sunday’s race. Even for the engineers, Sainz’s stop was not good news, the data collected was limited to the 15 laps completed by Leclerc in the 15-lap long-run with mediums.
“In the end I only did three laps in FP1 because of the weather and the same number in FP2 because of the technical issue, so it’s almost like I’ve lost the day,” Carlos commented. “Tomorrow we’ll start like a sprint weekend, hoping the track isn’t wet. I’ll have to go full speed in FP3 and make sure I find the pace straight away. Obviously it’s not ideal, in FP2 we needed both cars on track, also because we know that for us this is one of the circuits where we suffer the most because of the layout that doesn’t match the characteristics of our car.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Erik Junius
Leclerc’s ninth position was also due to traffic encountered on the fast lap, a problem the Monegasque complained about on the radio. The two and a half tenths left on the road would have placed him in sixth place, ahead of Alonso and behind Verstappen, but nothing more, as Leclerc himself announced between the lines yesterday.
“Yes, it was as tough as expected,” Charles admitted. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the pace of the guys ahead of us. I think we’re in a better situation than it looks when you look at the standings today, but we’re not fighting for the win yet, that’s for sure. So there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Even Leclerc’s usual optimism seems to be put to the test this weekend. “I’ll try to do something special in qualifying,” Charles admitted, “but at the moment we’re talking about gaps that are a bit too big to really hope to do something special. If we can get to two or three tenths, maybe we can try to do something, otherwise I expect it to be a difficult weekend.”
The weather forecast, which at the moment could be Ferrari’s best ally, indicates over 60% chance of rain tomorrow, while on Sunday it drops to 30%. For Leclerc and Sainz the ‘crazy’ race seems to be the only chance to hope for something more than a points finish.
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