A defeat. It cannot be defined in any other way Ferrari Sunday a Barcelona. The stable of Maranello concludes in fifth place with Sainz – after starting from second place – e at eleventh with Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc, the party is not here
"My goal? The top five” – had declared Leclerc before the start of the race. A high ambition, we don't rain on this, but it makes us understand the confidence that the Monegasque had in his SF-23, who in the end never managed to put him in the right conditions. The first stint with the hard tires was a disaster: Leclerc stopped in the pits after 17 rounds, even before Hamilton who had been on the softs since the start of the race. From Leclerc's words, perhaps, we can understand what the problem really is with a car that can aspire to the front row on Saturday, while Sunday becomes uncontrollable: “We have to work hard, we have an incredibly fickle car. In the same race we put on the same hard tires twice, in the first stage we are nowhere, in the last they were fine". How is it possible that a car fitted with hard tires in the first part of the race doesn't perform, while it does a few laps from the end? An assumption can be tied to the amount of fuel present on the car, which would also explain how Ferrari shows its full potential on Saturday.
Ferrari: the crazy relationship with tyres
Leclerc misses entry into the top ten, while Sainz say goodbye to his beloved Spain in fifth place. The speech to be made on pilot #55 is instead linked to another set of tyres, namely the mediums. After a good defense on Hamilton, Sainz tried to anticipate the pit stop (choosing the undercut route) by mounting the medium tyres. Decision that proved to be fatal: Sainz has never found rhythm with that type of compound, also showing graining on the front right.
And now it works
Expectations were once again not met. Ferrari comes out clearly defeated by Montmelò and now the only thing that can be done in Maranello is to continue working on an evident "problem sunday” which for quite some time in Ferrari has been considered the worst day of the week.
