Thousands of Tifosi had already traveled to the track in Imola on Saturday for qualifying, but were sent home with a very poor result. Even with a heavily updated Ferrari SF-24, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz couldn’t get past fourth and fifth place. And despite his low efforts on the previous two days, Leclerc is noticeably disappointed with his fourth place: “We missed our goal, that was pole.”
On Friday, Charles Leclerc achieved both training best times. On Saturday he was already defeated by McLaren in FP3. He ultimately finished qualifying with a small respectable gap of 0.224 seconds over Max Verstappen, and he was also over a tenth behind the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Verstappen benefited from slipstream on his last lap, but it wasn’t two tenths, a maximum of one and a half. “We are further away than expected,” Leclerc has to admit. “The round was good, there wasn’t much more in it.” He doesn’t see any regression since Friday, but rather believes that the competition was still using more gasoline or weaker engine modes. Sainz agrees: “On the soft laps, McLaren and Max looked very strong, especially after FP3.”
Ferrari not good enough in qualifying trim
Under comparable conditions, the updated Ferrari is probably only the third force behind Verstappen and McLaren, as was the case recently in Miami. At least in qualifying, “We had a little more problems with the soft,” says the team boss Fred Vasseur on ServusTV. As well as with the wind that changed on Saturday. “Tailwind in turns 2 and 7 doesn’t really help our car,” explains Carlos Sainz. “Yesterday he came from the front in 2nd, 5th and 7th, that was great for our car.”
Both problems hit Sainz harder than Leclerc. He was almost half a second shy of pole and was only a thousandth quicker than George Russell in the Mercedes. The first sector was a disaster for him: “Maybe not perfect tire preparation, plus the wind, and then you’ve already lost four tenths.”
Leclerc is now also worried about the race. On Friday the McLaren looked equal in the long runs, and now at least one of the two is ahead of it. Maybe both, but Piastri faces a penalty. “We are strong, but it’s all about the space on the track,” Leclerc becomes pessimistic.
Only one DRS zone, only one overtaking spot, an expected one-stop race. All factors that Ferrari will now be in trouble, even if the race pace is similar to that of McLaren and Red Bull. Nevertheless, Leclerc still maintains his fighting spirit: “We should still aim for victory and see what comes of it.”
Ferrari update in Imola not good enough?
The obvious question that now remains is about the big Ferrari update. The hope was above all to take a step back towards McLaren, after they had pushed past the Scuderia in the balance of power in the last few weeks. In Imola, however, Ferrari is once again stuck behind.
The drivers are not overly concerned. Sainz dismisses Italian press dreams that the update should have brought in several tenths as “completely far from reality”. The data measured on the track in Imola corresponds to what the simulations predicted. When it comes to fine-tuning the setup, Leclerc doesn’t want to talk about the optimum after two days: “If you put a new package on the car, it takes one or two races to find the optimal window and setup.”
In his opinion, Imola is also not the best track to make a judgment about an aero package. The reason behind this is the curbs, which you have to take aggressively in qualifying: “If you’re on a curb, then the small differences are less obvious.” Much more important is the ride quality, and that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with small aero improvements, more to do with the suspension.
“The season is still long and we still have a lot of ideas about how we can get more out of this package,” is Leclerc’s conclusion. “We will work on it between the next races. Hopefully that will put us in front of McLaren again.”