F1 | Ferrari: there is more potential than what was seen in Imola

Leclerc’s face at the end of the race said a lot. Charles cracked a smile, but not much more, despite the fact that he stood on the podium in Imola for the first time and took second place in the general classification. Only the two hundred thousand shouting “Charles, Charles” brought a smile to his face on the podium, but that’s another story. Leclerc’s message clashes a bit with the verdict of the track, i.e. a race that ended seven seconds behind Verstappen. The impression is that Charles felt a sense of missed opportunity, something that starting with the (crucial) qualifying sessions didn’t go as he should have.

The updates brought to the track at Imola by the Scuderia worked, everything was in line with expectations, what was missing was something else, probably the hybrid strategy that influenced the outcome of qualifying.

Both the drivers and the teams were certain: the race would be from the traffic lights going out to the first corner, and so (for the podium positions) it was. Hence the regret, with a different qualifying the final result of the weekend would probably have been different too. The good news, which must be read in perspective, is that Ferrari has come quite close to Red Bull, but although the gap has narrowed, McLaren has squeezed into that space.

Leclerc was clear: “Today’s race was good, we got even closer to our rivals, and with a better qualifying we could have given our fans a better result.” The best part of Charles’ race was seen in the stint on hard tyres. “I had an excellent pace – confirmed Leclerc – I was able to make up ground on Lando and Max. Overall there are many positive aspects that we take home from this race: the upgrades worked as we expected and we increased our competitiveness”.

Vasseur underlined the delay experienced by Leclerc under the checkered flag: seven seconds which (on average) is a tenth per lap. “It’s good news for me, but also good news for Formula 1. Today at the finish line we saw three teams within seven seconds, and it’s been that way all weekend. We’re not far away, but now I’m a bit frustrated because I believe that if we had finished qualifying with a 1-2, we would have converted that result into a one-two in the race today. If we missed something, it was yesterday, in qualifying, and not today in the race.”

Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Sainz’s weekend was inconspicuous. The fifth final position confirmed the gap towards Leclerc in qualifying. “I can’t say I’m happy, mine was a really difficult race. I have to work with the team to understand why I wasn’t able to be competitive either in qualifying or on race pace.”

Sainz did not go into details, implying that something went wrong both in the power unit and in the aerodynamic set-up. “Every single detail is crucial – commented Vasseur without going further – but I think everyone had problems. It’s never good to have problems, we need to understand what happened.”