Max Verstappen re-asserted his dominance on the field in qualifying for the Austrian GP. The Triple World Champion was over four tenths faster than Norris in second – a significant margin at such a short circuit. Russell was half a second behind in third, whilst Ferrari confirmed themselves as third-fastest this weekend.
FERRARI: SF-24 CLOSEr TO MCLAREN BUT QUALIFYING REMAINS DISAPPOINTING
After a difficult start to the weekend on Friday, Ferrari pursued two very different set-ups ahead of qualifying. This will also allow the Italian outfit to collect data over the Grand Prix distance. The qualifying times were slightly more respectable relative to McLaren.
Sainz was only a tenth behind Norris, whilst Leclerc was fighting for the front row before making a mistake. However, the SF-24 was no match for Verstappen and the RB20.
Even though track temperatures played a role, Ferrari have some fundamental issues to resolve. The updates introduced in Spain have not delivered the desired performance.
Carlos Sainz lost a whopping four-tenths between Turn 6 and the finish line. This is a huge amount of time to lose in only a few corners.
“Unfortunately, we are not good at high-speed corners. At the same time, we bounce, which makes our performance in that type of corner exaggeratedly slow,” said the Spaniard after qualifying.
Sainz confirms: Bouncing returns due to the Spain upgrades
The two update packages Ferrari brought to Imola and Spain were supposed to deliver half a second. However, although the Spain upgrades have unlocked more downforce, they are also making the SF-24 bounce. This means a huge amount of time is being left on the table.
Carlos Sainz confirmed this on Saturday:
“The innovations work in all the areas where we don’t have bouncing. The problem is that what we gain in those points, we lose in others due to bouncing.”
Aerodynamic load has increased significantly thanks to the latest upgrades. Unfortunately, the new floor is generating more bouncing – which essentially negates the performance generated from more downforce.
“This is not ideal, but the team is pushing hard to try to understand and solve the problem so that we can come back stronger at Silverstone,” added the man born in Madrid.
For now, the team’s main work has been set-up related. However, the Italian outfit still has to compromise between performance and drivability.
“The changes we made between Sprint and Qualifying have made the car faster but also a bit more difficult to drive. Now we are a bit more on the limit, so much so that it was very complicated to put together a lap,” said Carlos Sainz, who is realistic about tomorrow’s race:
“It seems that we are definitely a step behind Red Bull and McLaren, and I think we can only fight with Mercedes in the race.”
