F1 | Sainz: “Tough qualifying. Tomorrow with the dry it will be better”

Fifth on the starting grid but with a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. As Frederic Vasseur underlined at the end of qualifying, this Friday of action on the track also left Carlos Sainz with mixed feelings, because there was the feeling of being able to do something more.

The final third and fourth row undoubtedly does not put the Red Team in the best position in view of tomorrow's sprint, even if there are more encouraging indications in view of Sunday's race, which is expected to be dry.

Precisely the theme of the transition from dry to wet is what Carlos Sainz wanted to focus on at the end of qualifying, underlining the difficulties in bringing the intermediate tires up to temperature, so much so that he concluded with a deficit of over two seconds from the pole obtained by Lando Norris, which however is halved by taking Lewis Hamilton as a reference.

“It was a see-saw session. We did better in SQ1 and SQ2, then the rain came in SQ3 and we weren't able to get the tires up to temperature. Above all, I was struggling a lot with the rear, it was losing temperature and I couldn't get the tires back into the right window. We are three seconds away from pole and this means that either you manage to turn on the tires or you end up back. We struggled a lot, so if tomorrow is wet we will have to find a solution, while if it is dry we will be in less difficulty”, explained the Spaniard to Sky Italia.

Given the uncertainty of the weather, many drivers immediately went down to the pit lane waiting for the traffic light to turn green. This clearly cooled the tyre, putting the drivers in difficulty on the outgoing lap, such as Charles Leclerc, who ended up on the wall in the second sector. “With the intermediate we waited a long time at the pitlane exit, the tire cooled down and Charles and I struggled a lot in the outlap to warm it up again. I think he spun or had an accident, and I'm lucky I didn't have the same problem. We suffered a lot from the temperatures and were unable to do a good SQ3. Despite this, I think I saved the day with fifth place. And we'll see from there tomorrow.”

Another aspect to take into consideration is that of the wind, which in fact at the beginning of FP1 was blowing at 15 km/h: with machines as sensitive as the current ones it is a moment to lose grip, especially if it blows from behind in critical traction points , such as exiting turn 10. Similarly, other areas of the track also proved to be very critical, such as the last corner, where many drivers went beyond the limits of the track.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“The wind blows very strong here. There are corners where the grip is not bad, but in others, where the wind blows from behind and with these cars with such sensitive aerodynamics, there are corners where the car has no grip at all. If you add to this the wet asphalt and the intermediate tyre, for example in the last corner it was almost impossible to stay on the track. It's a very difficult track, but like I said, I think we saved the day with fifth place.”

One of the new features this year is that the parc fermé will be able to open after the sprint race, giving the engineers and drivers the opportunity to make changes. Sainz already has some changes in mind to improve the car for the race: “What will happen tomorrow? The sprint race in the morning, then parc fermé will open and we can change the car? I would like to be able to make a couple of changes to the car after the sprint race, because I don't feel comfortable. I have a couple of ideas to improve the car for qualifying. In the sprint race we will have to survive with what we have and fight starting from fifth place.”