By Carlo Platella
Ferrari finished the second qualifying session of the Austrian Grand Prix in fourth and sixth position, confirming that the difficulties suffered in Spain were not an isolated case. The SF-24 seems to have lost the balance appreciated at the beginning of the year, but the two Prancing Horse drivers have different opinions on the car’s problems. On one hand Charles Leclerc underlines the difficulty in balancing the behavior in slow and fast, while Carlos Sainz points to bouncing as the main limit.
Short blanket
Charles Leclerc was disappointed by the result at the end of qualifying in Austria, but satisfied with the progress made with the set-up: “I would say we made some good steps forward compared to this morning, we changed some things on the car”Charles’s story to the press on the circuit, included FormulaPassion. “However, I am a bit disappointed with my second lap in Q3, I made a mistake that cost us the chance to be in the top three. The feeling of the car is better anyway”.
The gap from Verstappen and Norris is an important one, with the Monegasque not hesitating to answer when asked what the limit of the current SF-24 is: “If we compare ourselves with Red Bull or McLaren, I would say the overall grip. However, we have a good balance and I think we did a good job in qualifying.” Positive balance if compared to Friday, but still precarious from an absolute point of view. The difficulty for the Prancing Horse is in fact in avoiding imbalances in behavior between the high-low curves.
A theory that also emerges from the words of Leclerc, who renews what he said following the Spanish GP according to which fast corners are not Ferrari’s problem at the moment: “I still think that when we get the car set up well for the high-speed sections, but the problem is when we do this we end up losing too much in the slow motion. The problem is that we have to find the balance. It may seem that we are weak at high mileage, but it is only because we had to optimize the car also for the slow one”.
Limiting bouncing
Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, has a different opinion, pointing the finger at the slowness of the SF-24 in the high-traffic sections: “Without going into too much detail, I think it’s a combination of the fact that we are not strong in fast and at the same time that we suffer from rebounds, which makes us extremely slow in high-speed corners. Here at Max we lose a tenth at turn 7, another at 9 and another at 10. Then it’s difficult to recover on the rest of the track, because in the low speed corners we’re almost on par.”
Opinions are also divided on a possible correlation between the current problems and the latest updates from Maranello.I do not believe”, replies Leclerc. “Could be”, replies Sainz, who adds: “Let’s see that [il pacchetto] it works in all the points where we don’t suffer from bounces. However, if the bouncing is triggered at high speeds then you have to lift your foot. What you gain in some places you lose in others. The more a track has high-speed corners, the worse the compromise becomes.” Two different versions of the Prancing Horse’s standard-bearers, but not necessarily mutually exclusive, which find their synthesis in the awareness of a Ferrari now struggling compared to Red Bull and McLaren.
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