Sainz: Team warned us new floor could produce bouncing

Much has been written about Ferrari's flopped attempt to upgrade their SF-24 in the Spanish Grand Prix and how bad the car became to the extent that they reverted to an older spec for the British Grand Prix.

Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur revealed that his engineers did not analysis in the two-week break between the British and Hungarian Grands Prix, and based on that are introducing a new floor this weekend which they hope would reduce the bouncing.

Speaking to the media in Budapest on Thursday, including GrandPrix247, Sainz was asked if he was confident Ferrari's engineers finally understood why the car was bouncing.

His answer was surprising, he said: "I'm fairly confident, given the fact that the team warned us that the new floor could produce more bouncing, and it did.

"So it sounds like we understood that that could be a possibility. And it happened like our simulations were suggesting. And then, yeah, our simulations are suggesting that our upgrade should have less. So I'm hopeful that at least our tools are telling us the right things and that we're finding the right way again," he explained.

The Spaniard was quizzed further whether going through the pains of trying to make their Barcelona upgrade was worth it and a way to make the SF-24 ultimately go faster.

"This is obviously debatable," he said. "I have my own theory about it. Obviously, I had been complaining about bouncing before the upgrade. Nothing else to say. I don't want to comment."

"No, that is not how a team should operate," the outgoing Ferrari driver responded when asked if Formula 1 teams should have track-specific car floors.

"The baseline platform of the car should be the same for every circuit. And you shouldn't be choosing floors depending on the track characteristic," he insisted.

While Ferrari are still second in the 2024 F1 Constructors' Championship behind Red Bull Racing after a strong start to the season, McLaren and Mercedes have finally caught up and now threatening the top two spots.

Asked if Ferrari can catch up with Mercedes and McLaren, Sainz said: "[There is] a chance this year. We just need two or three tenths.

"At the moment we are two or three tenths too far from fighting for the wins. We bring two or three tenths to the car from here to the next six, seven races we'll have a chance to be back fighting for wins at the end of the year. Or in the second half.

"But we need that soon and we need them because if not, our wins or our podiums are going to depend on the others making mistakes rather than us performing with weekends like in Australia and Monaco.

"Hopefully we can we have that capacity during the year to bring performance. This amount of performance to the car because it's not a lot. It's two or three tenths but nowadays are so difficult to find for every team.

"That's why you see all the teams all around the paddock struggling so much to find that performance and to get it right with trade offs," Sainz pointed out.

Indeed, Red Bull Racing seem to have reached a plateau in performance, as their boss Christian Horner insisting they are now under the law of diminishing returns.

Other teams as well, Aston Martin and VCARB, are struggling to make new upgrades work as both teams went backwards after recent major upgrade packages.