Ferrari: We’ll try to make up for time lost and build confidence

The great Italian team faced setbacks in both sessions on the day, limiting valuable data collection ahead of qualifying on Saturday and the Grand Prix on Sunday, Round 15 of the 2024 F1 World Championship.

The first session was hampered by adverse weather conditions, including rain at the start and strong winds throughout the 60 minutes. As a result, Ferrari couldn’t extract meaningful insights from the session.

However, the bigger blow came during the second session in the afternoon when Carlos Sainz encountered a gearbox issue that forced him to stop after completing just seven laps. This left only Charles Leclerc to run the planned programme for the team.

Leclerc acknowledged the difficulties faced by the team: “It was tough, as expected I would say. We don’t quite match the pace of our competitors in front, but I think it’s better than what it looks like on the timesheets today. We have work to do in order to be in a place where we can fight for the win.”

Despite the setbacks and ending the day P9, Leclerc remains determined to push hard in qualifying: “I will do everything to extract the maximum in qualifying, but the gaps we are looking at for the moment are too big to do anything special. If we can get to within 2 to 3 tenths, then maybe we can fight for a good spot in qualifying, otherwise, I predict a difficult weekend for us.”

Sainz, who ended FP2 down in P19, echoed similar sentiments, highlighting the limited track time he had due to the gearbox problem: “Today was not an easy day. This morning, due to bad weather, we weren’t able to run properly and unfortunately, during FP2 we had a problem with the gearbox in the first run, so overall I couldn’t do many laps. We’ll try to make up for the time lost and build confidence around the track."

Both drivers are clearly focused on making up for the lost time in tomorrow’s sessions, but the team recognizes the uphill battle they face in closing the gap to their rivals. The data gathered on Saturday will be crucial in determining their chances for a competitive qualifying performance.

As Ferrari heads into the weekend, their priority remains on optimizing car performance and building driver confidence, but with significant ground to cover, the task ahead is anything but straightforward as they drift behind the top three in the current F1 pecking order.