Ferrari lagging behind again in Silverstone: McLaren in a different league

While McLaren was able to claim both fastest times on Friday’s practice session in Silverstone, Ferrari, another Red Bull challenger, was once again far from these heights. Although positions eight and nine in the first free practice session were not exactly representative, as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz did not drive their fastest laps on the soft tyres, things did not go much better in FP2. Leclerc and Sainz were only able to manage positions five and eight.

Leclerc, the faster of the two Ferrari drivers, was 0.601 seconds behind Lando Norris’ best time. In comparable conditions, both Ferraris even finished behind Nico Hülkenberg’s completely revamped Haas. Expectations for the rest of the weekend are accordingly low. “For me personally, unfortunately, it feels as if Red Bull and McLaren are way ahead this weekend,” said Leclerc. “I hope I’m wrong.”

Ferrari is unfamiliar with Barcelona update

Sainz at least raises hopes, with reference to tests that Ferrari carried out during the two practice sessions, that the performance over the course of the weekend will not be quite as weak as it seemed at times on Friday. “Some tests are going in the right direction, others are not. But it’s Friday, so let’s test whatever we want and we’ll see how it goes,” said the 29-year-old.

But Sainz doesn’t believe that Ferrari will be able to fight with McLaren even if they take a big step forward to Saturday. “In the last few weekends, McLaren was clearly one or two steps ahead of us. It feels like it’s the same this weekend,” said the Spaniard. Sainz even goes a step further than Leclerc: “Of course we’re trying everything we can to understand this package and how to make it faster. But McLaren is in a different league!”

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc in an interview

Ferrari is likely to face another difficult weekend, Photo: LAT Images

Ferrari’s sobering performance is not necessarily surprising. The traditional Italian team is still unfamiliar with the extensive Barcelona update, which causes more bouncing in fast corners and thus costs performance. Such weakness is particularly suboptimal on the high-speed Silverstone circuit.

Marko: Ferrari two tenths behind

Leclerc hoped that the lessons learned from the Austrian GP, in which Ferrari used two significantly different setups, would lead to improvements in Great Britain, but these do not seem to have materialised yet in terms of the times. Leclerc, meanwhile, resorts to platitudes: “Of course there is some data to look at and everyone is going full throttle to try and make the best decision for tomorrow. But it was a productive day, not exactly fast, but very productive.”

Meanwhile, Ferrari is not the only one who believes that they are lagging behind. The team from Maranello also does not see the competition as a serious threat this weekend. “Ferrari is two tenths behind again,” believes Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr. Helmut Marko. The Styrian believes Ferrari is lagging behind not only over one lap, but also in the long run: “In the long runs, it’s just McLaren and us.”

Things didn’t go entirely smoothly for Red Bull on Friday at the Formula 1 in Great Britain either, although Max Verstappen’s big deficit in FP2 does not reflect the true balance of power. You can read all the details about the Red Bull training sessions in this article: