An immense pain, almost like having lost a World Cup. Which, it's not really that wrong. In France, once again, Ferrari fans live mixed feelings: of joy for the great comeback of Sainz, sadness, enormous sadness, for Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari, hold on to Leclerc
It's a heavy blow for Charles to swallow Leclerc. The Monegasque knew that, given the standings, he couldn't lose any more points considering the world struggle. Unfortunately, that was not the case. It is undoubtedly strange to see that the error was born when in reality Leclerc could try to control the race, with Verstappen and had performed the undercut and it wasn't close to the Monegasque (as it had been all along initially). It is natural that there is a lot of anger, it has been understood above all since "DO NOT” shouted from Charles who, despite everything, still wanted to tell everything, once the race was over. Some words which leave one reflecting: Charles does not seek justifications and assumes all the responsibilities of the case, just like the great champions do:
“It is unacceptable. If at the end of the year we lose the championship by 32 points, the ones I lost between Imola and Le Castellet, I'll know where this disadvantage comes from. It means it comes from me. Let's see at the end of the year, we'll do the math. But I can't do these things. Was I pushing for the stop? Yes of course, but let's all push, I don't want it to become an excuse. Howl in the radio team? I wasn't aware that I had the radio on. I would have preferred to keep it to myself, but that's life."
Sainz's super comeback
At Ferrari, however, on the other side of the garage, it is also possible (and rightly so) to smile. The race by Carlos Sainz in fact it was incredible. In this Grand Prix, with two absolutely incredible overtakings, the driver of red he showed everyone what he's made of. We're talking about a truly incredible driver who, if he can give this show, can strongly have his say in the next races. Also because, and it is impossible to deny, for what was done on Friday, and also on Saturday, Sainz without penalty would have been a potential candidate for victory. The Spaniard knows this very well too, even if after the race he preferred to analyze his performance:
“We saw the hard tire all weekend which was a difficult tire to manage, especially in traffic because it doesn't have enough traction to overtake. Since I put the average instead I started to go fast and I overtook the Mercedes and Red Bull on track. I was on the podium, but the team preferred to play it safe, taking fifth position and the fastest lap. It wasn't the perfect race because we had a slow first pit stop. With a perfect race we could have reached the podium, but we will analyze well and continue to do good races, as we are doing“.
The trust of the team principal
There is no doubt bitterness in the Ferrari garage, though Mattia binotto, team principal of stable, he already tried to remove everything trying to focus his attention about Hungary"Charles is a champion, no one in the team will ever doubt him and we all have total faith in him. I already told him that there are ten races to win, even today in terms of tire degradation we had the better of Red Bull and Max who was starting to degrade after about 15 laps. Everything was going in the right direction, the car is competitive enough to do one-two already in Hungary. We've already turned the page, it makes no sense to discuss a mistake by a rider, a champion like him: he's already with the engineers with a smile analyzing his pace. We are already thinking about next week's race”.
“In the future we have to put everything together, we have to be perfect and lucky. We're making our bones. We have total faith in everyone, we have made a huge leap. We put on a show, we are the reference for the others. As I said, now let's move on for Hungary: the World Cup is now more complicated but not impossible. We have to do our best race after race."
The last step before the holidays
Possible double? Hard to say, without a doubt, this one F1-75 can have its say on every track and, for these reasons, if the can still be considered open, you can't go wrong anymore. Hungary will be the last stage before the summer break, and everyone, really everyone, would like to go to the beach with a +25 at home.
