After three positive free practice sessions, Ferrari took to the track with the certainty of finally being able to compete for Pole in Imola. However, the Maranello team soon realized during qualifying that they couldn't get that high. Red Bull and McLaren once again proved to be more competitive, relegating the Red Bull to the role of third force. A cold shower for the team who will now have to analyze what didn't work. Despite the disappointment Frederic Vasseur interviewed after the qualifications from Imola says he is optimistic for tomorrow's race. The Pole of Verstappen she was taken by force by the Dutch but the difference, according to the data in hand, was made by Hulkenberg's wake. A factor that according to Vasseur shows the change of direction that this world championship can take, with three teams very close.
After qualifying in Imola, Vasseur relaunches the challenge: "Everyone is very close"
Ferrari did everything to try to attack Pole, but the effort didn't pay off. However, the SF-24 Evo performed well overall. McLaren Ferrari and Red Bull were very close, until Max Verstappen's final breakthrough, also helped by the slipstream that Nico Hulkenberg reserved for him. There penalty by Oscar Piastri allows Ferrari to recover a position both with Leclerc that with Sainz who will start third and fourth respectively. According to Vasseur, the difference is very minimal and this is an absolutely positive sign. “Today if we didn't consider Max's wake we would have all been in a tenth. Obviously we would have preferred to be in front but the challenge is very close. We showed good pace in the simulations and will start from the second row. We'll see what we can do,” Vasseur said.
“Our difficulties in the first sector? I think it's a characteristic, Max is much faster up to turn 4, then we are faster in sector 2. But you can't fight with the characteristics of the car, you have to manage what you have. In the end we're talking about a tenth, but we still reduced the gap in the last sector despite Max's wake.
Reducing the DRS zone will not help us, it was already difficult to overcome, we will have to do it from the start or with the strategy, and invent something different. The gravel could cause several safety cars, we must also take this into consideration.”
A cautious optimism
However, the opportunities are not over, in the race Ferrari is still aiming for victory, albeit a difficult one. A topic of discussion of the weekend is related to upgrades, but Vasseur implied that these obviously cannot solve all the problems of the SF-24 at once. Rather, it will be an ongoing process.
“We're not talking about half a second but about hundredths, and every little piece we can fix can make a big difference. I want to be optimistic, it will be possible to fight for victory. We are there, tomorrow we will do our best tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we will have 17 more races. We have other developments in preparation, we know that by bringing an update everyone else would have done the same thing. It doesn't mean that if you improve 2-3 tenths you will make a huge step. We all have the same approach and develop the car at a hellish pace.
However, we are happy with the correlation, also from a future perspective, but I didn't expect McLaren and Red Bull to slip back. The numbers on the track have been reflected and this is comforting, we are ready to develop further, but the competition will do so too" concluded Vasseur.
Source statements: autosprint
