A disappointing Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari: “Our rivals were always a step ahead”

This is not a weekend to forget, but the Spanish Grand Prix was quite disappointing for the Ferrari team. Starting fifth and sixth in Barcelona, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were unable to shake things up and crossed the finish line in the same position.

The two drivers and Ferrari tried to climb back up the rankings by adopting different tire strategies, but it was not enough to make progress. They started on new soft tires, hoping to have an advantage over the Mercedes, who had started on worn tires, but at the start, they did not manage to overtake, finding themselves in fifth and sixth place, even though the Spaniard quickly passed his teammate, creating some friction between the two men.

Carlos Sainz was the first of the two to pit, switching to medium tires on the 15th lap, while the Monegasque stayed on track, maintaining an acceptable pace until the 21st lap. During the second pit stop, the teams split strategies: Spain entered on the 36th lap to put on a new set of hard tires, while Charles Leclerc extended his stint, allowing him to take the risk of running on soft tires until the end of the race. Carlos Sainz therefore let his teammate pass on the 55th lap, with the Monegasque then setting off to chase George Russell in an attempt to snatch fourth place. He caught up with the Mercedes driver on the last lap, but it was too late to try an overtaking maneuver, which would have been possible if the race had lasted one more lap, notes the Scuderia.

Charles Leclerc gives up his place in the championship to Lando Norris.

The Italian team leaves the Catalan capital with 18 additional points, still second in the constructors’ championship, aware that it must improve in qualifying in order to start higher on the grid, since the gaps between the leaders are very tight, making overtaking and gaining positions difficult on Sundays, it stated in a press release.

Bad operation, however, for Charles Leclerc, who drops to second place in the drivers’ championship to Lando Norris, who steps once again on the podium.

« It was tight today and we were one lap away from fighting for 4th place, but our competitors were still ahead in terms of pace, explains the Monegasque. « As for our strategy, I think we did well to differentiate ourselves from the cars around us. We may have lost a little time between our two cars at the beginning of the race, but in the future, we will focus on our race pace to get the most out of our package at the next race. » It will be the Austrian Grand Prix, already next weekend.

Bad tire strategy.

On his side, Carlos Sainz also believes that it was a tough race, even though they gave it their all. Stopping early and finishing the race on hard tires did not turn out to be the optimal strategy today, but we only know that in hindsight, after the checkered flag, laments the Spaniard.

He said, “In any case, we lacked a bit of rhythm this weekend in general and we need to work on improving for the next weekend in Austria.”

On his side, team principal Fred Vasseur draws the conclusion that they must do a better job in qualifying. We need to take a small step forward so as not to start from behind, because it pushes us to take risks with our strategy. Yesterday, the gap to those ahead was about two tenths, today it was similar, and if we look at the whole race distance, the gap remains the same, he indicates.

The team boss mentioned the contact between the two drivers during the race, which he considers to be very light. He doesn’t think it cost them anything. What cost us more was that after our pit stops, we came out behind certain cars, it was very tight and we lost two or three seconds. With Carlos, we wanted to cover Russell, that’s why we had to switch to medium tires by stopping earlier. With Charles, the plan was to extend the stint to go a little further, which allowed us to try the soft tires.

With such small gaps between the teams, everything can change, according to him: there are four teams within two and a half tenths of each other, so from one track to another, the hierarchy can change. Next week, we will race in Austria where we will have another Sprint and I expect the circuit layout to suit us better, the Frenchman concludes.