There was a general climate of disappointment in the stands of the Autodromo ‘Enzo and Dino Ferrari’ Of Imola for the ‘Red’ public who came to see Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who after good indications in Free Practice will respectively start from fourth and fifth positions on the starting grid of tomorrow. A result that dampened the optimism of several fans, even the Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur he had always taken into account the threat of his opponents, never to be underestimated, together with other episodes that occurred towards the end of Q3: “From the start of the weekend it is clear that we are in good condition, but Norris and Verstappen are also there and the situation was very balanced from one session to the next – declared a Sky Sports F1 – if we consider the trail that Max had I think we would all have been within a tenth of it, but the fight is very close. It’s clearly not the easiest track to overtake, but it will be a long race. Yesterday we had a good race pace in the simulations, and this is the good basis for tomorrow. We’ll start from the second row and have a good slipstream to Turn 2, so we’ll see what to do.”
The strengths in the second sector
Analyzing the collective performance of his drivers, the Frenchman indicated what the strengths of Verstappen and Ferrari were on the Imola circuit, where the world champion benefited from Hülkenberg’s slipstream on the straight: “Max was much faster than anyone else until Turn 4, while we were in the second sector – he added – you can’t fight with the characteristics of the car, you have to manage what you have.”
The importance of strategies
The mission to be accomplished for tomorrow’s race at Ferrari will obviously be that of a comeback towards a possible victory. An objective in which Vasseur continues to believe: “Here it is difficult to overcomeand to do this we will have to succeed at the start or with the strategies because on the track it will be complex – has explained – we will have to invent something different than the others, and another factor could be the gravel with different Safety Car; if we look at the youth series today there were several more laps with the Safety tires than without. Nobody can predict these situations, but I believe they could happen in this race. Victory could be possible tomorrow, I want to be optimistic. I think it’s a good message for the fans, and we will do our best.”
The expected feedback from the updates
Vasseur who, in the end, still seemed satisfied for the team updates brought by Ferrari to Imola, which provided the desired results: “We knew that by bringing an update to Imola the others would also do the same thing. I think Mclaren brought an almost entirely new car from Miami, as did Red Bull and Mercedes. We can be happy because we found what we expected and it is positive from a future perspective. The steps forward are what we expected and were reflected by the numbers on the track, and this is positive because you can trust in the development in the factory and you can work on the weak points. After 5-6 races we are trying to have a clearer picture of the car in order to develop it, but it doesn’t mean that we will make a huge leap in the standings, because the competition also carries out developments.”
