10/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Strategy, the wind and the SF23's infamous inconsistency were at the heart of a seriously disappointing Silverstone outing for the Scuderia.
In the end, a day that promised so much, what with its drivers starting fourth and fifth behind the McLarens, turned out to be an abject failure.
Charles Leclerc finished ninth and Carlos Sainz tenth, the pair held at bay by Alex Albon in the Williams.
For Leclerc it all went wrong when the Monegasque was ordered to pit on Lap 18, in what appeared to be a move to undercut his rivals, rather than extend his opening run on the mediums.
"In the first stint we didn't have a great pace compared to the Mercedes and the McLaren," he said at race end. "I managed to keep George behind, I think that George was maybe planning to come in if we were staying out, or probably the team decided that it was better to be aggressive and pit.
"So that's why we stopped so early, but that put us quite a bit on the back foot for the rest of the race. I was on the hard trying to manage the tyres as I knew I had to go to the end of the race, but then unfortunately there was a Safety Car and everybody passed us there. It was then a race of DRS until the end, and no overtaking. So a disappointing race."
If his first stop was too early, the call to pit him under the Safety Car came late, the youngster getting the "box, box" message as he exited the corner just before the pit entrance.
"I knew that the team had a good reason for me to pit if they were calling me that late," he said, "so I came in and didn't have much time to think."
However, he admits that the very nature of the Silverstone circuit meant he was always going to struggle.
"We knew that this track was going to be one of our worst tracks because of the high-speed corners," he said. "This is one of the weaknesses of the car.
"It was kind of a positive surprise to be so close yesterday," he added, referring to qualifying. "I mean timing-wise because I didn't do a great lap in Q3. But we were very close to Red Bull, I think on the time lap. But then in the race, we have been struggling a lot and mostly in high-speed corners."
For teammate Sainz the inconsistency of the SF23 was made worse by the wind.
"Very windy, very tricky car to drive again," said the Spaniard, "it's very difficult to be consistent in these conditions.
"We were struggling a lot on traction in all the tailwind," he added. "We couldn't get on the power and also a harder tyre made the fighting and everything very tricky.
"We know it's our weakness, we know where it is. We see it in the wind tunnel, we see it in our car, we see it on the driving, on the feeling. So, it's just a matter of developing.
"At least we've done some progress. But again, Silverstone has put us back in a position where we know we need to improve the car."
"There's still a long way to go because at the moment, we seem still very sensitive to the change of conditions," agreed Leclerc. "When I say change of conditions, I mean mostly the wind. When we have a change of wind our car becomes extremely difficult. On that, we have made steps forward but there is still quite big steps to do.
"I believe we know why we are struggling," he added. "It's clear for us we are pushing a lot on the development, especially for the high-speed corners."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone here.