Leclerc and Sainz nearly clinched the pole at Monza, setting the stage for an exhilarating race day.
No home pole for Ferrari, but Charles Leclerc, with the fourth fastest time, and Carlos Sainz, in fifth, were very close today at Monza.
According to the Monegasque, Ferrari did not encounter any particular problems; however, the SF-24 is still just slightly lacking in performance.
“Not fast enough, I am frustrated because we had the same issue in turns 1 and 2 all weekend without managing to solve it, so I am very disappointed, but that’s how it is,” the Monegasque driver stated.
“It was very tricky. I had understeer in FP1 and FP2 and for some reason, it disappeared and I felt good in FP3. It came back during qualifying. It’s a bit of a shame because we lost it all in the first sector. We were fast in the second and third sectors.”
“We seemed on par with the others on the long runs, we can still play our cards tomorrow as we are all very close in terms of pace, the frustration is there, especially here in Monza. We brought specific upgrades for the circuit to challenge McLaren, but there’s still work to do and a weekend below expected performance. A podium might not be a victory, but it would be nice.”
Sainz explained that “during this last attempt in Q3, in the second and third sectors, the temperature dropped significantly and it was very difficult to get the front tyre to work. That’s why the lap was so slow. Ultimately… a tenth and a half is nothing, but it’s clear that today’s Formula 1 is all about the details and perhaps yes, a slight drop in temperature towards the end costs our car a bit more time.”
At Monza, there’s a lot to be gained at the start with the slipstream.
“Yes, the start, the pit stops, the strategy… it’s clear these are the keys for tomorrow, I mainly think that ‘graining’ will play a significant role. There’s a lot of graining on all the tyres, when we do more than five or six laps in a row, the tyre opens up a lot and tomorrow we might see something similar, so it’s going to be an interesting day.”
“There’s much more graining and much more degradation than in other years. If there’s no graining there’s no degradation, but if there’s graining there’s a lot of degradation. So, it will be there, on the edge between one stop or two.”
“We have a card to play, in the race we are always a bit better. So, I want to dream of a victory on my birthday.”
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Ferrari Duo Narrowly Miss Pole, Set for Thrilling Race Ferrari Duo Narrowly Miss Pole, Set for Thrilling Race
