11/07/2024
NEWS STORY
The recently introduced upgrade package has left Ferrari floundering, with Carlos Sainz fearing the team has taken a huge step backwards.
From the outset the upgrade, introduced in Spain, has proven problematic, in particular the new floor, so much so that in the last couple of races the SF-24 has been seen bouncing in high-speed corners.
Over the Silverstone weekend the Maranello outfit tried a number of things, eventually settling on a return to the Imola configuration.
Though this appeared to alleviate the bouncing it meant an overall loss of pace, as the Italian team lost ground to the ever-improving Mercedes and McLaren.
"It is not good enough," said Sainz, who finished 35s down on fourth-placed Oscar Piastri. "We have basically the same car as in Imola and since Imola everyone has upgraded, probably added two tenths to the car and we have had to revert.
"We have lost two or three months of performance gain in the wind tunnel or performance we could have added in these three months," he added, "so clearly we haven't taken the right calls recently.
"I feel like Sunday was at least back-to-basics, back to a car which was in Imola and we just need to upgrade it from here. But it is clear that our rivals are a good step ahead of us.
"I think we did the maximum," he said of his British Grand Prix, which for the second successive race saw him as the team's only point scorer. "Especially in the middle of the race when it was slicks-on-wet. I managed to catch the podium positions by six or seven seconds in those conditions that I always enjoy.
"Honestly, all the calls were pretty much spot on, all the tyres, all the radio calls," he added. "It was just a shame we were not faster because I feel like we would have been 100% in the fight for the podium or the win. But fifth and a bonus point at the end with the fastest lap, so we need to be happy."
Looking ahead to the two races before the summer break he fears the problems will continue.
"We will bounce in Turns 4 and 11," he said of the Hungaroring, "but until something better comes we may have to live with bouncing for a while. In high-speed tracks we might have to run the floor of this package because if not, the other one is undriveable.
"I trust the team will make the right calls circuit-to-circuit until a more solid package, which is not bouncing in high-speed and good in low-speed, arrives and then we will start thinking about battling the top three teams again."
However, team boss Fred Vasseur disagrees, feeling that the team actually took a step forward at Silverstone.
"It's difficult to say this after the result, but I think we did a step forward this weekend, at least on the technical side," said the Frenchman. "We have a much better understanding of the situation Sunday evening than Friday morning, and this I think is encouraging for the last part of the season.
"For sure the result today is not ideal," he admitted, "but we compromised mainly the result yesterday, that more than today. Carlos did a solid race, that he was able to come back on Max on the first int and to stay 10 laps in the gearbox of Max, with medium at the beginning of the race.
"On Charles it's a bit more chaotic," he added, "because he was stuck behind Stroll, he lost 10 seconds, and when we had the first call for the pit stop, it was a bit on the edge.
"I think we had exactly the same situation last year, almost at the same stage of the season," he continued. "Silverstone, Budapest, Spa... and we stopped it in Zandvoort to do a complete scan of the situation, and we had a good recovery, because the weeks after we were there.
"What is tough in this situation is that when you have an issue, you don't have a proper test to fix it, or at least to understand it. And it's quite difficult as a team sometimes to compromise or sacrifice a Friday session, when you know that you are losing a little bit of time during the weekend. And to say, 'OK, let's forget about FP1, FP2, be focused on mid-term'.
"Trust me, this decision as a team is very difficult, because you start the weekend, and it was even worse in Silverstone with the weather. It means that we put ourselves in a tough situation, but this we knew before. And it was even worse with the fact that the Saturday morning was with wet tyres. That for sure it was not helpful, but we assumed the decision before the weekend, and I think it was the right call to do it."
It wasn't that long ago that Ferrari was seen as the main threat to Red Bull, asked if he still believes his team can challenge for the title, Vasseur admitted: "Honestly, I'm not focused. If you ask me what the classification is, I know that we are P2. But I don't know about how many points we are behind Red Bull and how many points we are ahead of, I don't know who is P3, it's McLaren probably.
"It's not the topic of today," he insisted. "The topic of today is to find performance, to come back in the situation of Monaco or Imola, and to be able to fight for pole position and the win. Then, the championship, we have still 12 races to go or 13 races to go. It's almost a championship. It means that we'll have time to change everything ten times."