Ferrari took stock after the final result of the sprint race this Saturday (9) in Austria and highlighted the good pace of the F1-75 "more or less like that of Red Bull" as the positive point
Ferrari tried, but could not prevent Max Verstappen's victory in the sprint race this Saturday (9) in Austria. But despite the final result in favor of Red Bull, some points were considered by the Maranello team, starting with the good pace of the F1-75, which in the view of Laurent Mekies, was very close to the RB18.
In the race that set the starting grid for the Austrian GP, Charles Leclerc finished second, with Carlos Sainz closing the podium. "In terms of pure pace, the good news is that our cars were very close to Max's," said the Ferrari sporting director. "We knew we were close, and it's positive to think about that for tomorrow, to be more or less on the same pace. The race is long, it's not 100 km, but we know we will have the pace to fight," he added.
Right at the start, Leclerc and Sainz had a good wheel-to-wheel duel for a few corners - interestingly, Mattia Binotto said before the start that Ferrari would start the team game this season to favor whoever was ahead. Who got the better of this time was #16.
"There are positives and negatives. We have two competitive drivers who can maintain a very good pace. You can't predict what's going to happen on the first lap, and they swapped positions a few times," Mekies analyzed, saying that Leclerc started to manage the medium compounds from then on.
"We set out for a dynamic with Charles saving tires in the first part of the race. It's something we'll work on with the drivers tomorrow," concluded the Frenchman.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of theAustrian GP weekend. On Sunday, the start is scheduled for 10:00 am (GMT-3).