Despite set-up changes, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc could not solve the “fundamental issues” of their SF24s.
Sainz was left frustrated after the qualifying session at the Losail International Circuit. The Spaniard ended the session seventh-quickest – two places and two tenths off team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The pair will start fifth and seventh on the grid for Sunday’s race – split by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who had his own struggles compared to his team-mate George Russell.
Leclerc topped the sole practice session on Friday. However, the Scuderia was already aware its SF-24 didn’t suit the high-speed characteristics of the Losail track.
Hitting the “hard limit”
Since the only practice session, the Maranello team has been losing ground to its rivals ever since – Red Bull found a lot more performance during qualifying. Despite a decent sprint race, Sainz described the team’s SF-24 had a “hard limit” on lap time during qualifying – no matter what set-up was applied.
“It just seems like our balance, our through-corner balance, our overall load in the car in these long combined fifth-sixth gear corners, it doesn’t seem to be performing as well as it should,” the Spaniard said.
“I think we’ve tried everything possible with a soft tyre to switch it on better: faster, slower out-lap, anything you can imagine�– and we just simply seem to be finding a bit of a hard limit with the lap time that we could produce, in particularly with Charles, with the new floor, and also me with a bit of a more difficult session than yesterday. But I think it is what it is.”
The Losail track has a smooth surfaces and has a plethora of high-speed corners, requiring to take a lot of kerb. The SF-24 excels at low-speed corners, requiring traction. However, the Losail track is full of high-speed corners in a swooping flow.
No matter what set-up
During the sprint, both Sainz and Leclerc complained of low grip levels. Despite finishing fourth and fifth, the complaints prompted the team to make further set-up changes for qualifying.
“We definitely tried quite a few things,” said Sainz. “Both on set-up and tyre preparation. It just didn’t seem to change our fundamental issues. I think when you’re talking about tyre preparation, you’re talking about the last tenth.
“When you lack three or four tenths and you see all the medium-speed corners, you’re just lacking minimum speeds and a bit of through-corner balance. And you realize that maybe just it’s not quite in there, no?”
Ferrari are still in the hunt for the constructors’ championship. However, the Scuderia are hanging on as they are on the back foot after qualifying compared to McLaren.
Feature Image Credit: Joe Portlock via Getty Images