Carlos Sainz has explained how a change in the wind direction impacted Ferrari’s prospects as he qualified in fifth position at Formula 1’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
With Charles Leclerc having topped the opening two practice sessions at Imola, Ferrari had been touted as the favourites to land pole position heading into qualifying.
However, the Italian marque came up short when it mattered in the Q3 shootout as neither Sainz nor Leclerc could match Red Bull’s Max Verstappen or the McLarens.
Despite Ferrari introducing several updates to its SF-24 car this weekend, Leclerc wound up two-tenths behind Verstappen, with Sainz an additional three-tenths back.
But while he believes Red Bull’s earlier weekend struggles were overstated, the Spaniard admitted he was surprised he didn’t unlock more pace on the Soft compound.
“No one runs the fuel and they run with the engine turned down on Fridays, especially Red Bull,” Sainz, who was promoted to fourth as Oscar Piastri was penalised, said.
“When you look at the Soft laps and the GPS data, you have always seen the McLarens and Max since FP3 looking very strong.
“The only thing that is puzzling me is how we can be 0.4s down in one sector, which is sector one.
“I seem strong on the Mediums and the Hard, but when I put on the new Soft tires I find barely any lap time, which puzzles me a bit and something I need to work on.”
Leclerc had cautioned that Ferrari must anticipate the evolving wind change to ensure that it was well-poised to capitalise on its encouraging pace through practice.
While Ferrari has dialled out the sensitivities that plagued the SF-24’s capricious predecessor, Sainz hinted that Imola showed it has not eradicated all vulnerabilities.
“It is a balance shift and it’s also the way the wind was blowing today, it doesn’t really help our car,” he divulged when pressed further on his troubles with the Soft tyre.
“It’s a tailwind into Turn 2 and Turn 7, which is still our main weakness with this car.
“We know we need to improve it and we have been trying for a while, so that didn’t help our sector one, but in general we never had enough to challenge Red Bull.
“McLaren maybe with a huge lap, but when you have the two cars in front you know they are strong.”
Expanding further, Sainz added that Ferrari’s recurring problem with generating heat in the rubber and the wind culminated in it losing too much time in the first sector.
“The wind was blowing from behind and wind from the front into Turns 2, 5 and 7 as mega for our car, but today with a tailwind we struggled with a particular thing in those conditions,” he continued. “And maybe not switching the tyres perfectly on, plus the wind you lose 0.4s. That’s something I need to work on myself and with the engineers.”
Sainz has conceded that McLaren’s upgrades in Miami have seen his ex-team move above Ferrari in the pecking order when it comes to pace in single-lap conditions.
Asked whether the Woking-based squad had an edge since bringing parts to the MCL38, Sainz said: “They had it in Miami, it’s just on the Soft they struggled in Miami.
“If you saw the lap times they were doing on Mediums in Sprint quali and the race especially, they were 0.2s or 0.3s faster than us and then we come to a McLaren circuit, which is Imola.
“It was always going to be difficult to beat McLaren around here, they were a 0.1s off with Charles and 0.3s off with me, a struggling me.
“So I was pretty sure it was always going to be a McLaren track and hopefully there will come Ferrari tracks where we can challenge them.”
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