Only 48 thousandths of a second separated Ferrari from what could have been their second pole position of the season, less than half a tenth. Nonetheless, smiles reign on the faces of the Maranello team, not only for the final time obtained in qualifying, but also because the Italian team has finally managed to put together a clean session, without unexpected events or particular episodes.
Of course, the fact that Carlos Sainz had to use an extra soft will probably create some headaches in view of tomorrow’s sprint shootout, but compared to the appointments in Monaco, Barcelona and Montreal, where some unexpected events had always occurred, making it impossible to maximize the potential of the car with both single-seaters, in the Austrian Friday tells a different story.
An aspect that the Team Principal also wanted to underline, who described this first and second row as the right reward for the efforts of all the technicians at the factory: “Overall it’s a good qualifying. Both cars in the top three, which is a good result and a nice reward for the team. We are going in the right direction.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“In Canada it was 50-50, it was a difficult Saturday, but with a very good race. This time we also managed to do a good qualifying, we have two cars in front. We’re just a little frustrated because there are only a few cents between Charles and Max, but it’s also a positive for the team to have brought the car to second position”, explained Fred Vasseur, pointing out how the wet qualifying sessions in Canada hadn’t allowed us to materialize that potential that was instead seen on Friday during free practice.
A lot of work was done behind the scenes to bring the updates in time for the race in Austria. In fact, according to Vasseur himself, it was initially expected that the news would only arrive in Budapest, therefore close to the summer break. However, the hard work of all the people in the factory made it possible to anticipate the updates first at Silverstone, then at Spielberg, thus making the new front wing and the modified bottom available in time for the second sprint of the season.
“We pushed a lot in the factory. The updates were supposed to arrive in Budapest, but everyone worked really hard, 24/7. Initially we wanted them to be UK-ready, then Spielberg. My first thought went to the guys in the factory, because they worked hard, they did a great job”.
![Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23](https://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/mgl/0JB1QWE0/s1000/carlos-sainz-ferrari-sf-23-1.jpg)
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“Tomorrow could be a different story. We know the weather for tomorrow is not so good, but let’s see tomorrow, we don’t trust the forecast. If it’s dry, there will be only three riders with new tires in the top ten, Norris, Charles and Max and it could be a different story.”
With only one free practice session, it was also essential to be able to immediately identify the set-up for the rest of the weekend, so the work done at home before arriving at the circuit took on an even higher importance than usual: ” It’s certainly a bit more complicated, because you only have an hour to try everything, DRS active or closed, different loads of fuel, the tyres, it’s difficult to do everything in one hour. But it’s the same for everyone,” added the Team Principal.
The goal now is to repeat itself over the long distance too, the real Achilles’ heel of this SF-23, which in qualifying was often deceived and then suffered in the race. After Montreal, a track more congenial to the characteristics of the Italian car, the hope is to be able to show tangible steps forward both in the sprint and on Sunday afternoon. Although Vasseur himself wanted to underline how the conditions will be realistically different from those encountered in Canada, from his point of view the direction chosen is the right one and will help them to progress: “It is true that the pace has been very good starting from halfway through the grid, we had good pace with just one pit and we also had good consistency. But I think that the track layout is completely different here too, the asphalt is different, as are the temperatures. It will be a different story, but we are still on the right direction ”.
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