Carlos Sainz Jr from Spain piloted the Ferrari SF-24 car in the Formula 1 World Championship at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy, on May 18, 2024. On qualifying day, Sainz explained how a change in wind direction affected Ferrari’s performance. Despite Charles Leclerc’s good performance in free practice, Ferrari fell short in Q3, unable to match Red Bull and McLaren. Sainz expressed surprise at the lack of pace he experienced with the soft compound tires, especially in the first sector. He acknowledged the need to improve in that area.
Leclerc had warned that Ferrari needs to anticipate changes in wind conditions to capitalize on their good performance in free practice.
Although Ferrari had addressed the issues that affected its unpredictable predecessor, Sainz suggested that Imola revealed some remaining vulnerabilities.
“There was a change in balance and also in wind direction today, which doesn’t favor our car,” he revealed when asked about his difficulties with the soft tire.
“There’s a tailwind in turn 2 and turn 7, which are still our main weaknesses with this car.
“We know we need to improve in these areas and we’ve been working on it for a while, but it didn’t help us in sector one. And overall, we didn’t have enough to challenge Red Bull.
“Maybe McLaren put in an incredible lap, but when you have two cars ahead of you, you know they are strong.”
Expanding on his viewpoint, Sainz added that Ferrari’s ongoing issue with generating tire heat and the wind resulted in a significant time loss in the first sector.
“The wind was blowing from behind and the headwind in turns 2, 5, and 7 was a big challenge for our car. But today, with the tailwind, we struggled with a specific issue in these conditions,” he continued. “And maybe we didn’t get the tire change perfectly right, besides the wind, which cost us 0.4 seconds. That’s something I need to work on with myself and the engineers.”
Sainz admitted that McLaren’s updates in Miami allowed his former team to surpass Ferrari in terms of pace on a single lap.
When asked if McLaren had an advantage since introducing parts on the MCL38, Sainz replied: “They did in Miami, but they struggled with the soft tire there.
“If you look at the lap times they were doing with the medium compounds in the sprint qualifying and especially in the race, they were 0.2 or 0.3 seconds faster than us. And now we come to a McLaren track, which is Imola.
“It would always be difficult to beat McLaren here. They were only 0.1 seconds behind with Charles and 0.3 seconds behind with me, even though I was struggling.
“So I was sure it would always be a McLaren track, and I hope there are tracks where Ferrari can challenge them.”
