Ferrari closer to chasing F1 midfield pack than the top three teams

Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were P6 and P11, respectively. The Monegasque is 0.909s down on Lando Norris' pole-winning time in the McLaren. The Spaniard did not even make it into Q3. Their once race-winning form (Melbourne and Monaco) has gone AWOL and they can't find it again.

The Scuderia's slide in performance has continued in Holland; Ferrari are now closer on the timesheets to the chasing pack than they are to the leading trio of teams in terms of current pecking order.

Leclerc summed up his afternoon: "We knew it would be a tough one today, and we maximised our qualifying with P6, but that doesn’t satisfy us. We are quite a bit off the pace of our competitors, and we are working night and day as a team to close that gap. I am sure the effort will pay off soon.
The target for me will be to keep our position and bring as many points home as possible."

Sainz was even more miserable: "I’m obviously not happy with how things are going this weekend. Before this session, I’d hardly done any laps with the slick tire, so it was always going to be very difficult to do a perfect qualifying around this tricky track. Then, in Q2, traffic around the high-speed section didn’t help either, and missing Q3 by less than a tenth hurts.

"In general, we are struggling with the car this weekend, but points are given out tomorrow, and I’ll try to do my best to recover<" reckoned Sainz.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur gave his verdict: "We were expecting a tough weekend here in Zandvoort. Last year it was one of our worst races, mainly because of the configuration of the track, and we have not brought any upgrades this weekend. In the end, we have secured a respectable position on the grid with Charles, and we will have our chance to fight for good points tomorrow, although a podium finish will be difficult unless something happens in front."

The Ferrari boss continued: "It’s important to score as many points as possible, because we have seen so far this season that teams can go up and down, and when you have a difficult weekend like we are having here, we must still try to get the best result we can. There will be tracks that suit us better in the remaining races, and we will also make progress with the car soon.

"With Carlos, it’s been a bit more difficult, as he went into quali having been unable to do any laps on the soft tire yesterday, and when the gaps are so small, this is the result, and he missed out on Q3 by less than a tenth. I expect Carlos to get back on the pace quite early in the race tomorrow. Tonight we will have a good look at what we can do to help him in terms of strategy and tires," added Vasseur.

Stats are not kind to Ferrari. Since Monaco it has been downhill, now trailing both Red Bull and McLaren in the 2024 F1 constructors' standings ahead of Sunday's Round 15, the Reds may even fall down to P4 and worst of the top teams in the next ten rounds, unless there is a drastic reversal to their fortunes.

Both Leclerc (P3) and more so Sainz (P5) will have their work cut out finishing in the top three, let alone a title tilt, which the Reds may have felt they had not too long ago.