A team pole position. This immediately seemed to be the best possible definition to frame what Ferrari managed to do in qualifying for the French Grand Prix this afternoon.
During Q3, Carlos Sainz Jr. offered the trail to Charles Leclerc, helping his teammate a lot in the second sector, where the Red Bulls had all the credentials to make a difference.
Sainz, burdened with a penalty that will force him to start from the penultimate position tomorrow for having unmarked a completely new power unit, He helped Leclerc in the two attempts in Q3. If the first of the two seemed to have had no effect, the second was instead decisive and gave Charles the seventh pole of the season.
At the end of the official tests, Laurent Mekies gave himself up to the microphones of Sky, recounting from his point of view the exciting qualifying sessions for the French Grand Prix staged today at Paul Ricard.
“They did it perfectly as a team. For us it was a good day because it is a team result. It is never obvious to complete that type of program so well, because it is very complex in terms of times and gaps between the machines. . They were both good. Good at Charles for pole, because we were quite behind Max here, and good at Carlos because he went very fast in Q1 and Q2, but also good for the execution of the work in Q3. team pole “.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
If the idea of the wake was proposed by the team, its construction was instead the result of the thought of the two pilots who then perfectly implemented the plan studied this morning.
“We chose that place to give Leclerc the wake because we have very good drivers, they are incredible. We had thought about doing it before the chicane, but Carlos and Charles said they wanted to do it afterwards, even though it was much more risky. So we have I took home a piece of slipstream before the chicane and afterwards, which was much more risky. Their idea, so well done! “.
“For tomorrow’s race let’s never forget where we were just a year ago. The worst race of the year due to the high wear of the front axle. The pole is a test point compared to last year, but tomorrow it will still be more important. We have seen that Max is very strong in the race configuration, but our riders are also very strong. Where will Carlos manage to finish? Here it is difficult to overtake, it is not obvious. But I think it is plausible to think of the Top 6 “.
If Ferrari was able to take advantage of a two-pronged strategy today to beat the RB18s of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, tomorrow it will be the Red Bull Racing drivers who will have the chance to fight together against Leclerc. Mekies thinks the Dutchman’s pace on long runs will give the Milton Keynes team a small lead over the Reds, but the Maranello team looks ready to fight.
“The work done in Maranello for a year now, thinking about the difficulties we had last year, I think we will be able to take him with us to the race tomorrow and he can give us a hand. But I honestly believe that Red Bull will have a small advantage tomorrow. of us. We will be fighting with them. We are fighting on the details and I think it will be the same in this case as well. We will try to optimize everything with strategy and tire wear. “
“They will be 2 on 1 tomorrow. It will be a big factor but it is part of the game, we knew that. But we think we will recover points with Carlos. It will be tough for Charles because we will be 2 on one, but it is part of the game, we will have to learn how to extract. everything in these moments and we are ready to fight “, concluded Ferrari’s sporting director.
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