F1 | Ferrari: Nine-tenths of a gap at Zandvoort is a millstone

There is no escaping reality, which in motorsport is the law of the stopwatch. Ferrari’s natural position on the starting grid for the Dutch Grand Prix was sixth, the one that Leclerc will occupy. The calculation had been made by excluding Sergio Perez from the top-5, but the Mexican pulled himself up when Lewis Hamilton sank. The final result for the Scuderia remains unchanged: P6. No one in red can say they are satisfied, but at the same time there is the awareness that today it is difficult to aim for something more if variables external to the potential of the cars do not intervene.

“We knew it would be tough,” Leclerc admitted. “We maximized our qualifying with sixth place, in the end the lap seemed good to me, but we are still 9 tenths behind on such a short track, it’s a lot, too much, but we are aware of this gap, and we are working flat out. We hope that the updates we will have will allow us to reduce this margin. When will they arrive? I know the plan but I won’t reveal it…”.

The nine tenths highlighted by Leclerc are dictated by a track feared by the Scuderia (considering the basic characteristics of the single-seater) but above all by the lack of innovations on the single-seaters, at a time when the direct rivals are confirming themselves to be construction sites in full activity.

Leclerc tried to push as hard as possible, but it was all too clear that in several points of the track it was difficult for the Monegasque (as well as for Sainz) to go on the accelerator in the middle of the corner without finding himself struggling with a rear end that was anything but stable.

Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

On the Sainz front, there is the bitterness of having missed Q3 but at the same time the awareness that it would have been impossible to do much more. Carlos tried the soft tyres for the first time in Q1 due to the stop in the FP2 session yesterday caused by a transmission problem. To complicate matters, the end of FP3 came after only fifteen minutes due to Logan Sargeant’s violent accident, another circumstance that condemned Sainz to start qualifying without references.
“I usually take a short time to find the limit,” Carlos explained. “I think I could have made it to Q3 today, but too many things happened this weekend, and we had been out for three weeks, so that also had a bit of an impact. In the end, without Hulkenberg’s traffic in Q2, I could have made it to Q3, but I don’t want to sound too optimistic.”

Frederic Vasseur also did not hide. It is a sixth-place Ferrari and that was the result. “Already last year this was one of our worst races,” he admitted, “mainly because of the track configuration, and we didn’t bring any updates to the car here. In the end, we secured a good grid position with Charles and tomorrow we will have our chance to fight for some good points, although a podium finish will be difficult to achieve unless something happens up front.”

The scenario is clear, even if it is not one that promises anything good. The race will be uphill as were the qualifications, for Ferrari the objective will be to limit the damage trying to bring home the highest number of points.
“So far this season we have seen that the values ​​between the teams can vary if you run into a difficult weekend like the one we are experiencing here: this is why it is important not to go away empty-handed. More suitable tracks will arrive for us in the remaining races and soon we will also make progress with the updates on the single-seater”.

The tracks will certainly arrive, they are on the calendar, the updates will have to arrive and confirm that they are capable of moving the technical hierarchies. Even the role of second force covered in the first third of the championship is now a distant memory.