The positions on Saturday were confirmed at Ferrari, as well as for the majority of the leading group, and Ferrari had another disappointing weekend in Barcelona. Frederic Vasseur commented on his team’s race in Spain, marked first of all by the contact at the start of the race between Sainz and Leclerc after a few laps, when the Spaniard overtook his teammate on the outside of turn one, closing the door a lot. Once again in addition to Verstappen and Norris, the Mercedes duo also finished ahead of the Ferrari drivers thanks to yesterday’s Qualifying and a better strategy by the Brackley wall. The confidence shown yesterday after Qualifying was extinguished in hidden disappointment, so much so that the Maranello Team Principal spoke about the next round in Austria.
Vasseur: “We have to work better on Saturdays, Spielberg will be better for us”
After the race Leclerc showed his discontent towards his teammate on the radio, also confirmed in post-race interviews, but according to Vasseur it was not this episode that caused the Monegasque to lose fourth place: “Penso complained because it lost half a second or a second at a time, rather than damage that we didn’t see from the data. But we can find ten other moments where he lost a second during the race. It was a small contact but we didn’t lose anything at that stage of the race, I don’t think so, we were fifth and sixth.” Rather, the French manager focused on the strategy, and finally on yesterday: “With the strategy we found ourselves behind some cars and lost a few seconds, and in the end we were a lap away from catching Russell. But we started fifth and sixth and finished fifth and sixth, for me the bottom line is we need to do a better job on Saturday.”
The gap in Qualifying, as well as the final positions, was confirmed again today between the RB20 and the SF-24: “Yesterday there was a difference of two tenths, or two and a half tenths in Qualifying, and today we had almost the same gap. The important thing is to be on pace on Saturday because in Qualifying you have to take this small step forward, we have to do it because when you start from behind it’s difficult to overtake and you have to take risks with the strategy and as you saw the top 6 arrived in the same positions as on Saturday.” The Red car, on the other hand, continues to suffer from the flying lap and even in an attempt to add more load to the car, yesterday the drivers talked about porpoising.
Usually the Barcelona event gives a rather good overall image regarding the teams’ performances, but the ex-Sauber did not want to admit the status of fourth force: “This is the situation in Barcelona, it’s clear, but it wasn’t the situation two weeks ago in Montreal and I think it will change every weekend.”the concentration immediately moved to the Spielberg appointment where the Sprint format will return: “We have four teams in two tenths, or two and a half tenths and we must keep in mind that positions can always change due to the set-up, tires or temperature. Everything will be open in Austria next week with the different format of the Sprint e the characteristics of the track will perhaps be more suitable for us.”
