Fifth and seventh position for Ferrari in the Sprint Race of the Gp d’Austria. Sainz e Leclercafter a wonderful start, they were unable to do better and at least overtake the Mercedes Of Russell e Hamiltonarrived at the finish line in fourth and sixth place. The two SF-24 they behaved practically the same way, with the two Carletti very good at turning off the traffic lights, but forced almost immediately to manage the single-seater.
The Monegasque has overtaken them Alpine Of Ocon e Gasly and the Red Bull Of Perez during the first lap, and he attached himself to the train DRS composed of Sainz and from the two Arrows silver. After that, however, the car had a brake problem, and after having created a good gap and Czechhad to settle. For the Spanish, however, an excellent start, Russell inserted, but then about halfway through the race he had to let it go through the same problems suffered by Charles.
The Sprint it lasted 23 laps, with Verstappen and the McLaren to fight for victory in the first part: Norris has at first passed Maxbut he was again passed at turn 4 “like an amateur”, as declared by the British driver himself in post Sprint. At that point, Plates he got in the way, finishing in second place ahead of his teammate who was far from happy with how things went.
Ferrari, the brake problem affects Sainz and Leclerc
The Ferrari has many things to review: the fifth place of Sainz certainly cannot satisfy. It must be said like the Sprint Race serves, from this year, to do a concrete test of long runs, something impossible in the only free practice session, and today’s result made it clear to the Scuderia how there is work to be done before qualifying, not only on the set-up, but also on the management of the components to avoid other problems such as those with the brakes.
“I struggled with the brakes, especially in the first part of the race – Sainz admitted -. I had to lift my foot and do some lift and coast to manage them: we will try to solve this problem for tomorrow’s race, but we already suffered in this sense in free practice. Here we are at altitude, and when you are in a DRS train they heat up and quite a bit, but it is a very normal thing”.
“After losing the DRS Of Plates at first, I tried to keep up Russellbut I couldn’t do it because the Mercedes they had a tenth more on the pace than us, it was quite evident. At that point George passed me and from that moment I tried to stay in his slipstream, but he had more. At least I managed to keep up Hamilton for the rest of the Sprint, it was not easy at all”.
Ferrari, Leclerc radically changes structure
Leclerc he was very good at the beginning, passing the Alpine e Perezthe latter with an outside maneuver in the most guided part of the very short track Spielberg. The initial feeling was that the Ferrari could have a race pace capable of causing a lot of trouble to the Mercedesbut in the end it didn’t happen, because Charles was stopped by the brakes. Pun intended, but which characterized the whole Sprint Race from the Scuderia.
“I suffered from brake problems – reiterates the Monegasque -. This situation did not allow me to stay on the train DRS con Carlos and the Mercedes. I was the fourth car in the group, so I had to do a lot of lift and coast to keep the temperatures as low as possible. The race was difficult, but these details make the difference and we have to be on top of it”.
The SF-24 it’s not fast: for several races now the single-seater has been struggling to compete with the MercedesIt is evident that there has been a sort of regression at least in relation to direct opponents. Leclerc he admitted how he has to work drastically on the set-up to try to have a noteworthy qualifying and not settle for a third row which would lead to nothing from a race perspective.
“We’re not fast enough, so I want to try something for qualifying. There is also a risk of going in the wrong direction, because we have been struggling for three races now. I don’t want to do anything too exaggerated, but it’s time to try something with the set-up, because now we’re in fourth or fifth position, and that’s certainly not my or our goal.”
Author: Andrea Bovone
Images: Scuderia Ferrari
