Carlos Sainz believes that Ferrari’s recent difficulties in Formula 1 are due to the team facing problems with high-speed balance. Despite making improvements to their car, Ferrari has fallen behind McLaren and Mercedes after initially being the closest competitor to Red Bull. Sainz was able to take advantage of his teammate’s mistake and a deleted lap to secure fourth position on the grid. However, he suggests that the balance issue, which has haunted Ferrari in Spain, contributed to their half-second gap to pole position. While the developments have met Ferrari’s expectations, Sainz believes that the problem is preventing the team from unleashing the full potential of their SF-24. He acknowledges that the improvements work well in areas without balance, but when balance is activated at high speeds, they need to retreat, resulting in a compromise between gains in some areas and losses in others. The presence of more high-speed sections on a track further exacerbates the problem as it slows down the car. Despite the challenges, Sainz reassures that the team is working tirelessly to solve the issue and come back stronger in Silverstone.
The Spanish driver acknowledged that Ferrari’s difficulties are exacerbated by their weakness in high-speed sections compared to their immediate competitors. He stated that they struggle in high-speed corners and that the balance makes their performance excessively slow at high speeds. Specifically, in Turn 7 and Turn 9, they lose a tenth of a second to Max Verstappen in each corner, making it difficult to recover. However, they are relatively competitive in low-speed sections of the track. Despite their efforts to understand and improve their new package and solve the balance issue, Sainz admitted that Ferrari has fallen behind their rivals in terms of overall performance.
Sainz described the weekend as very challenging, expressing that they have been facing difficulties in the past races. He acknowledged that they are one step behind Red Bull and McLaren in the race against Mercedes. Although they made some changes before qualifying to make the car faster, it also made it harder to control. Putting together a good lap was a complicated task, but Sainz was satisfied with his performance, securing the fourth position on the grid. He mentioned that if someone had told him they would achieve this result before qualifying, he would have gladly accepted it.
