Charles Leclerc finished seventh and Carlos Sainz fifth in the Miami GP; Both drivers complain about the inconsistency of Ferrari’s SF-23, which leaves them struggling to fight their rivals; Team Principal Fred Vasseur searches for answers as to why cars behave differently between drivers and tires during the same race.
Ferrari is struggling to understand its SF-23 car
Ferrari is looking for answers to its “very inconsistent” SF-23 car ahead of its home race at Imola after “struggling like crazy” during the Miami GP.
After a crash in qualifying, Charles Leclerc started seventh in the USA and failed to advance throughout the race, eventually finishing in the same position and 53 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen who had started ninth in the grill.
Meanwhile, his teammate Carlos Sainz finished fifth after having started third as the lack of race pace that has plagued Ferrari in 2023 continued.
Leclerc revealed how he is struggling to gain confidence in his car, which is proving unpredictable to drive over one lap and even just one corner.
“We are competitive in qualifying and once we get to race day we are fighting like crazy,” Leclerc said. sky sports f1.
“The window of our car is very narrow and every time you go a bit out it has huge consequences on the balance.
“It’s from one corner to the other. Even in one corner, you can have a lot of understeer that turns into a lot of oversteer and this is obviously not ideal for having confidence in the car.”
“We have a lot of work to do, we need to find something now. We’re struggling in the race for a little while now, so we need to find solutions.”
“Mercedes are fast, Aston Martin is really fast in the race, the Alpine didn’t look too bad in the race. I can’t add anything other than that we have a lot of work to do and we need to find something.”
While Leclerc had been unable to pass Kevin Magnussen’s Haas while on medium tires in the opening laps, his teammate Sainz looked more competitive when he upset Fernando Alonso during his opening stint.
Ferrari pitted Sainz against Alonso in an attempt to undermine Aston Martin. While that initially proved successful, Alonso managed to pass his compatriot again within two laps and Sainz was never able to threaten podium positions on the hard tires again, eventually finishing 16 seconds back in fifth after taking a five-lap penalty. seconds for speeding. the pit lane.
Sainz said Ferrari needs to iron out the inconsistency affecting its car, as the current lack of understanding gives them limited flexibility in race strategies.
He said sky sports f1: “I think we are in the middle of a learning process. This weekend will help us a lot to understand why we can fight for pole position again on Saturday, do a very good stint in the middle and push Fernando in the middle and from suddenly put on the hard, do three or four laps pushing the tires to try to undercut and then this means that in the next stint you’re going to end up 20 seconds behind a car that we actually went faster than on the mediums.
“Clearly we need to understand why. Right now it’s very perplexing and very difficult to understand these things.”
“It’s a very inconsistent car, it’s very demanding. You’re driving correctly at the limit, on a knife edge and this means that in the race we pay the price.”
“You have very little flexibility: you push one lap and you’re great, you’re looking for a low cut, the race is too long and it just means we can’t play too much with our competitors in terms of strategy and level of pressure to want to overtake. or undermine them. This leaves us with a lot of unknowns going into a career and a lot of things to learn because it’s clearly not where we want to be.
“We’ll make sure we take steps in the right direction. We’ll keep trying things.”
Vasseur: The inconsistency is between cars and tires
Ferrari used an upgraded floor and diffuser in Miami, but they did little to improve its competitiveness on Sunday.
Team principal Fred Vasseur is pushing for answers as to why SF-23 behaves so differently between cars and tires in the same race.
“Honestly, we’re too inconsistent during the race. We had a good ride to the race, but overall it wasn’t enough, so it means we have to understand why we have so many ups and downs during the same race,” Vasseur told Sky. F1.
“The updates were good. I think the (Sunday) story is more about tire management and clearly we need to step up.”
He then expanded: “Overall it was a tough weekend and a tough race because (in qualifying) the pace was decent, but we couldn’t get everyone together and (the race) was pretty similar. The first stint went pretty well for Carlos., he lost a couple of seconds in one third of the race and then he lost 25 seconds in the last two thirds.
“We were too inconsistent from car to car and lap to lap. We have to understand why.”
“In some stages of the race, we were good. In the first stage with mediums for Carlos, we lost five seconds in 18 laps and this stage of the race was good for us, and for Charles it was the opposite.”
“I was in good shape in some stages of the second stint on the hard, as I was struggling a lot more in the early part of the race (on the medium).
“We really need to focus attention on this because it’s key for us. That’s where we need to take a step.”
“For Charles, we had a lot more performance on the hard, and with Carlos, a lot more performance on the medium, and even with the same tires from one lap to the next, we’re a bit inconsistent.”
Formula 1 returns to Imola for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix from May 19-21. Watch each session live at sky sports f1 including the race starting at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 21.
