Ferrari wants to “start from scratch” in Monaco

Ferrari has indicated a desire to start from scratch as the Monaco Grand Prix approaches. The Italian team is coming off a mixed weekend at Imola. While the qualifications went very poorly (both drivers were eliminated in Q2), the race was much more favorable (4th place for Hamilton, 6th for Leclerc), a trend since the beginning of the season. Indeed, the SF-25 is a more competitive car on Sundays than on Saturdays, a fact that does not favor Ferrari this weekend since Monaco is a circuit where qualifications are crucial, giving us a preview of the race positions.

For Ferrari, this adds a difficulty to a season that is not going as planned (only one podium since the start of the year, Leclerc’s 3rd place in Saudi Arabia). The Monegasque, winner of the Grand Prix last year, approaches this event with pessimism, aware that this circuit is not favorable to the characteristics of his car. “It will be a very difficult weekend. I think Monaco highlights quite a few weaknesses of our car,” he explained to the media, including GPblog. For Frédéric Vasseur, the head of the Italian team, a good result will necessarily come through better performance in qualifying, an element that is currently lacking in the Italian camp.

Qualifications to better negotiate

Even when we are in good shape in the race, we remain behind McLaren. What has been clear over the last three or four races is that our race pace is much better than in qualifying. In Jeddah, we were the fastest car on the track on Sunday, and in Miami, we were much faster in the race than in qualifying. It’s clear that we are trying to get the best out of the car on Saturday, and over the last two weekends, we didn’t have good pace, but we can’t find the reasons, highlighted the Frenchman to RacingNews365.

To avoid another underperformance in qualifying, the former Alfa Romeo director indicated that his team has been working tirelessly for several days on low-fuel runs to find the source of the problems encountered by the Italian team. The Monaco Grand Prix is a unique race. We know how crucial qualifying is on this circuit, and in recent days, we have focused specifically on improving our performance in timed laps, as in recent races, we haven’t managed to extract the full potential of our package on Saturdays.

A potentially wet track on Saturday: a boon for Ferrari?

« We must clearly focus all our efforts on this, because in Monaco, on Saturday evening, everything is almost decided. This means we need to have much better performance on Saturday. We want to do better than this weekend, but it will be much more difficult. Monaco is a different story in terms of tire management, preparation, so we will start from scratch to understand the issues and do better in the future. »

Uncertainty reigns in the Italian camp before tackling the Monaco Grand Prix, a home race for Charles Leclerc. Nevertheless, showers could fall before or during Saturday’s qualifying: a sign of destiny for the reds?