La Ferrari seen in the second part of the season had more than one flaw to file. The main problem arose with tire management and an F1-75 in difficulty even in the privileged sections, the slow ones. In FP2 on the Yas Marina circuit, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz obtained the third and sixth fastest times respectively. However, what convinced both the riders and the team was the race pace, not up to the one shown by Mercedes e RedBull. As if that weren't enough, the team was shaken by the rumors about the future of the team principal Mattia binotto. Publicly the Maranello team ei pilots they avoided the topic as much as possible, debunking the thesis on Binotto's departure in 2023 as much as possible, but it is clear that it will remain one of the central themes of this weekend.
An uphill weekend
The two squires of the redhead started the session on the Medium tyres, with Leclerc setting a time of 1'26"045 and Sainz of 1'25"368, before switching to the Softs. With this compound the Monegasque dropped to 1'25"599, with the Spaniard setting a time of 1'26"161, to then improve up to 1'25"932. In the final part of the session, the most indicative for the GP, both riders lapped in race set-up with Medium tyres. “Why are we going so slow?” this was the comment of Leclerc who had noticed a non-optimal wheelbase of his F1-75.
One problem Leclerc admits in his report at the end of the day, linked once again to tire wear. There is time to change and tomorrow in FP1 as much data as possible will have to be collected to try to save the race, in which the team will try to defend the second position in both the constructors' and drivers' championships.
“Overall, our sessions went well. We struggled a bit with race pace due to tire degradation, which was expected. Our pace in qualifying was a little better, but our rivals seem to be one step ahead. We will use tomorrow's practice to make further progress and give our all for the last qualifying sessions of the year".
Source statements: Scuderia Ferrari
