On paper, things were looking pretty good for Ferrari in practice on Friday. The Reds were ahead with both cars in the afternoon and were able to outperform competitor Max Verstappen in the Red Bull by more than half a second. Nevertheless, there is still some skepticism, especially since Carlos Sainz will start the race from further behind after a grid penalty – probably even from the very back.
The Spaniard set the best time on Friday in 1:32.527 minutes, a tenth of a second faster than his teammate Charles Leclerc.
“It was definitely a positive Friday. I didn’t do a lot of laps on low fuel, but every lap was pretty competitive,” says Sainz, praising the car’s pace. “It shows that our steps are in the right direction.”
Due to his fixed penalty on Sunday, because the use of a third electronic control triggers a shift of ten places, Sainz focused more on the long runs on Friday anyway. “We still have work to do,” he says. “But at the same time, the short run is encouraging.”
But he is more needed by teammate Leclerc, who wants to get his seventh pole of the season on Saturday and make up more ground on Max Verstappen in the World Championship. The Monegasse speaks of a “good Friday”, but also says that Ferrari still has to work on the car. “It’s very difficult to understand because I have the feeling that Red Bull is doing something else,” he says.
But Ferrari is only concentrating on itself – and with the F1-75 everything fits so far. “The feeling is good. We just have to bring everything together,” emphasizes Leclerc. “The pace is definitely in the car. I just need a good lap in qualifying tomorrow and it should be good.”
He says: “If we have a perfect weekend, we will fight for victory.”
Pitfalls in France
But there are still a few pitfalls at the weekend. Especially the tires in connection with the high temperatures will probably be the key. “It’s pretty hot and that puts a lot of strain on the tires,” says Sainz, believing that there will be more tire wear on Sunday than in previous years.
With regard to the past year, that was still the great weakness of the Reds. France was Ferrari’s worst race of the season due to tires where both cars missed out on the top 10 under their own steam.
According to Leclerc, the tires seemed to have been quite good on Friday. However, they have also observed this at Red Bull: “Max seems to have been particularly fast today with a lot of fuel,” says Leclerc. “I don’t know how much gas they ran on. That’s the question.” And Sainz also recognized that Verstappen was very fast, especially on the medium.
He still sees room for improvement in himself: “I was at the beginning [des Longruns] fast but slow in the end. I want the speed to transfer from the short run to the long run,” said the Spaniard.
Sainz hints at further penalties
Because he needs a good long run on Sunday because he will probably start from the back. Officially, the penalty is only ten starting places, but Sainz indicates that it won’t stay that way: “We’ll see,” he replies when asked about further penalties. “But it’s already ten places and you can expect what will happen next.”
Leclerc will be on his own in the fight against Verstappen on Sunday, while Sainz first has to work his way through the field. On Friday he had already practiced a few overtaking maneuvers to see how it works on the Circuit Paul Ricard.
But that was more difficult than expected, as he has to admit. Tailwind in particular on the long Mistral straight made things more complicated because it reduced the slipstream and DRS effect.
“But I have no other choice. I have to find ways to overtake. And the best medicine for that is just to be a little faster on Sunday,” he says. “We’ll see if we have the top speed to overtake when everyone has revved up their engines. I hope we have that because I have to make up a lot of places.”