Ferrari team principal reflects on another disastrous qualifying session in Hungary
Ferrari had yet another disastrous qualifying session at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday. The new format in Hungaroring, which mandates using hard tyres in Q1, medium in Q2 and softs in Q3, made it difficult for many teams as several regular 'top 10' qualifying drivers crashed out before Q3.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was one of them. Meanwhile, his teammate Charles Leclerc made it to Q3 and will start Sunday's race in P6. Sainz will start five places behind the Monegasque in P11.
Reflecting on the qualifying session, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur stated that the team's drop in performance was not due to the new format, adding that they should have managed the tires better.
Vasseur said in his post-qualifying comments:
"It’s nothing to do with the format, it’s the same for everyone. We didn’t do a good job managing the tires."
He was also surprised by his former team Alfa Romeo's performance in the qualifying, as both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu made Q3 and made top 10 in the starting grid. Vasseur said:
“We are all surprised by Alfa Romeo. They have not brought any upgrades. We all focus on updates, but they didn't bring anything specific yet and they went from the bottom to the top positions. This means that by properly interpreting the package available, progress can be made. I think this is a good lesson."
When asked about how his team will fare at the main race on Sunday, he said:
"As for the race, it’s hard to say how it will unfold, because teams were doing their long runs yesterday on different compounds. Track conditions tomorrow will be completely different to Friday which means we all go into the race a bit blind, since we had limited runs with high fuel this morning. It will be an interesting challenge and we will have a lot of work to do tonight."
Ferrari driver react to their Hungarian GP qualifying performance
Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc would be disappointed with their performance in the qualifying session of the Hungarian GP on Saturday. Both of them could've performed better had the tires been managed well.
However, like their team principal and Ferrari fans across the world, Sainz and Leclerc believe that they have the potential to make up places in Sunday's race.
In his post-qualifying comments, Leclerc said:
"Although I am happy with my lap, we just weren’t fast enough. Our car is quite sensitive to wind and that also affected the outcome. It’s difficult to say who our main competitors will be tomorrow, because, as we have seen this season, the pecking order is changing all the time. We know what our weak spots are and will work hard to improve them. Tire management is key on this track, if we manage that well we can have a good race."
Sainz expressed frustration at missing out on Q3 for the first time this season, adding that he wasn't comfortable with the medium compound all weekend.
Sainz said:
"I’m not happy to miss out on Q3 for the first time this year by only two thousands. I haven’t been comfortable with the medium compound all weekend and I paid the price today, in the tightest qualifying of the season so far. It won’t be easy tomorrow with the traffic and the high degradation, but we’ll try everything to overtake and gain positions to bring home some good points."