The red mountains of the last two GPs, in which he went from the peak of his lifelong awaited triumph at home in Monte Carlo to the abyss of retirement in Canada (a fate shared by Carlos Sainz, moreover), have made Charles Leclerc less bold compared to the last eves. After almost two months of substantial parity in performance, in which in addition to the Red Bull the McLaren also won (Miami at the beginning of May), the Ferrari driver in Barcelona expects to see the dominant Red Bull of the first months again, capable of taking four of the first five races, leaving only the Australian GP on the table – for reliability reasons – which was the double for the Reds. «My opinion – says Charles – is that the RB20 here will return to the levels of the beginning of the season. I repeat, I am not speaking on behalf of the team but on a personal level: on this circuit they have always done very well, plus in the last four races the curbs were very important, not the strong point of our rivals.”
Engine trouble
The primary objective, for Ferrari, is to erase the double zero in Montreal, caused by having made the wrong set-up choices – the SF-24, very kind to the tyres, on the contrary suffers more than the others from low temperatures – and completed from reliability problems. “We have learned our lesson,” said both team principal Frederic Vasseur and Carlos Sainz, referring to the first problem. As for the second, a failure in a sensor in the power unit mounted on the Monegasque’s Ferrari, which cost him the loss of at least 80 horsepower for over half the race, was identified and obviously resolved. «There was more performance in the car – concludes Leclerc -, I am confident that we will return to our levels here».
Updates ready
Sainz, never on the podium in his home GP although he always scored in the points in nine attempts at Montmelò (maximum 4th place), can’t wait to solve the puzzle of the future which sees him divided between Sauber (future Audi) and Williams : «I will make a decision soon, I still need a few days but I don’t want to wait any longer». And he senses good air for this weekend, confidence not motivated exclusively by the updates – in particular to the bottom and extractor – that Ferrari was able to bring forward compared to the timetable that initially envisaged them arriving at Silverstone. «I think there are chances of winning – said the Spaniard -, even if I have to wait for the tests to understand how great they are. The new pieces? We don’t have a magic wand, all the improvements we are making are small steps that we hope will add up to each other.”
