Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz say they are braced for tyre limitations to reappear in 2021 but cannot predict exactly when they will arise.
Ferrari finished qualifying as the third-fastest team in France, with Sainz fifth on the grid and Leclerc seventh, but slumped down the order on race day.
Sainz mirrored his rivals in running a one-stop strategy, though regressed to 11th, while Leclerc opted for a second stop and trailed home a lowly 16th.
Ferrari has been conscious of its limitations but Leclerc conceded that “we didn’t expect it to such an extent” at Paul Ricard.
“We are expecting to have the same issue any time in the season but we don’t really know when.
“We are trying to fix it as quickly as possible and hopefully will make this problem less of an issue very, very soon.
“We get why we create this issue but we still need to find the solution.”
Sainz outlined that “very big investigations” are underway in order to tackle the problem in the medium- and long-term but is optimistic Ferrari can still address some of the issues in the short-term.
“Statistically the most front-limited circuits,” Sainz said on where Ferrari may encounter the worst setbacks. “Obviously Pirelli and ourselves have our simulations tools which say which circuits are more front-limited and which circuits are rear-limited.
“We knew going into France it was a very front-limited circuit and we might struggle.
“On Friday it was actually pretty warm, the track was in decent condition, and we didn’t see any indications that the front was going to be any limitation, but suddenly on Sunday with the track condition change it was a very big issue.
“It’s not like in three days we’re going to solve the problem, so we’re going to be exposed to conditions and to track changes, but we can do something to start learning.
“I think what we lack at the moment is to experiment, and we need to experiment with different set-up directions, different configurations that we can put in the car to at least in the short-term mitigate the problem.”
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