The first great evolution of the Ferrari F1-75 has worked as expected, although the long runs on Friday have caused concern in the Italian team.
Carlos Sainz He has an important goal in mind this weekend in Barcelona: to get his first victory in Formula 1. His Ferrari is at the top of the grid and he has always been very competitive at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
And Ferrari is doing its part to make it possible, since the first great evolution of the season has been released in this Spanish Grand Prix and, after the first day of training, the data collected indicates that progress has been made.
«I don’t want to call it fear, but let’s say that the priority is to work on it»
“Satisfied with the improvements made to the car, they work”, confirms Carlos Sainz in this regard. “We have put a lot of new things and it has been interesting, although I made some changes in the second free practice that prevented me from improving and I think I will go back to what I tried at the beginning.”
“I think they have potential and we have seen some changes in the behavior of the carwhich is good when you bring updates, because you want to see some real changes.”
The theory says that this circuit is favorable for Ferrari, especially the third sector of the Catalan track. However, Sainz admits that Red Bull and even Mercedes have been very quick on first contact with the track.
“There it is true that our car should make the difference, but Red Bull also did it in the corners and everyone was fast today. We all do tests here and things will be very fair in the classification ».
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tire degradation
However, the long runs made during the second half of Free Practice 2 on Friday have caused concern for Ferrari and Carlos Sainz.
While Charles Leclerc tested with medium tyres, the Spaniard did so with the soft ones. And the prevailing heat about 50 ºC of temperature in the asphaltshowed a notable degradation in both compounds.
“It seems that there is a lot of degradation with the heat, something that could be crucial for the race, so we will keep an eye on that, “says the Madrid native.
“We have to analyze it and find the right settingsbut we have a lot of data and I am convinced that we will find a more comfortable set-up,” adds Sainz.
Charles Leclerc was much more explicit, acknowledging that «yes, there is a lot of work to do. At one turn we saw ourselves strong, fuel-heavy runs seem very difficult at the moment. We will have to work very hard and find a lot of rhythm.”
«I don’t want to call it fear, but let’s say that the priority is to work on it and improve; Right now, we’re just not strong at race pace.” points out a worried Leclerc.
Not in vain, in the race simulations this Friday, Max Verstappen showed himself in average between five and six tenths per lap faster than the Ferraris, with the Mercedes performing at a level very similar to that of the Italians.
“For the qualifying lap, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, but then we downgraded them quite a bit for some reason. I don’t have an explanation for now, but we must try to find the reason and then, once we find it, we will work to improve it”, concludes the Monegasque and championship leader.
Photos: Scuderia Ferrari