Ferrari in difficulty but optimistic: “We know where to develop the car”
On the sidelines of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz declared that his team had identified its difficulties and was already working on its development path for 2023.
In Bahrain for the first race of the season, Ferrari had been the victim of an engine reliability problem which led to Charles Leclerc’s retirement while he was running in third place. Carlos Sainz, in fourth place, could not fight due to his worn tires, which allowed Fernando Alonso to overtake him and deprive him of a podium finish.
Tires that don’t hold the road
In Jeddah, it was once again the tires that posed a problem for the Scuderia, an issue that the team has been suffering from since last season already. After a good first stint with the soft tires, the hard tires led to a downfall for both drivers. Interviewed by Canal+, Fred Vasseur admitted this weakness.
We need to understand why we had such a big loss compared to the competition. It wasn’t too bad at the beginning of the race, especially for Charles [Leclerc] who was able to climb up, but we completely collapsed with the hard tires. It’s not good, we need to understand what’s happening with these tires. I don’t blame the tires at all, it’s us who are not able to make them work.
According to Carlos Sainz, Sunday’s race proved that the issues encountered were not specific to the abrasive Bahrain track but rather to the car.
« I think that the last stint on the hard tires proves that we are not where we want to be, that we’re deteriorating even more than the Mercedes, that we’re deteriorating even more than the Aston Martin and that we’re lacking a bit of pace during the race,” he declared to Autosport.
« I am a little surprised because after Friday and before the weekend, I thought we had a chance to be the second force here in Jeddah. But I think this last stint on the hard track proves that we still have a lot of work to do. We have to wait for the upcoming developments to see if we can improve this weakness. »
A specific axis of development
He also reveals that Ferrari has found the root cause of this deficit and that a strong correlation between the wind tunnel and the track has provided the team with a clear development direction for the future.
The fact is that the car does exactly the same thing as in the wind tunnel, so we know where the weakness is. We have already identified it in Bahrain.
We know where to develop the car, we just need time because obviously, we can’t make the improvements overnight, but I am certain that this team is capable of bringing them from the beginning of the season.
This could completely change our season. So, let’s lower our heads and work hard.
