‘Hot conditions make task demanding’: Diego Tondi reckons cooling the engine will be crucial for Ferrari’s success in France

‘Hot conditions make task demanding’: Diego Tondi reckons cooling the engine will be crucial for Ferrari’s success in France

Charles Leclerc's victory celebration with Ferrari team.

Diego Tondi, head of Ferrari’s Aerodynamic department, openly spoke about the upcoming difficulties to be faced by his team. French GP is set to be a hot race with temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius, this will set a new bar to the cooling system all teams will have to get along, especially Ferrari. Also, the high temperatures will tag along with high tyre degradation around the track making tyre management the most crucial part of the race.

Ferrari is already suffering from the early blows to their engines and is trying its level best to recover from the ruins created. But things just get worse for the Italian team every weekend, either the engine gives up on the driver or the strategies are messed up for the driver that needs it the most. Ferrari is currently lagging huge points being Red Bull and need a considerable amount of performance to end their first half of the season not much behind the leaders.

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“The high temperatures predicted for the French Grand Prix this weekend means that ensuring the power unit and the tyres perform at their best is a real challenge and it’s up to those working on the aerodynamics to take the appropriate countermeasures”, said Diego Tondi.

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Diego Tondi gives realistic goals for Ferrari to catch up in the French GP

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz's F1-75 after his engine caught fire in the Austrian Grand Prix
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz’s F1-75 after his engine caught fire in the Austrian Grand Prix

With Charles Leclerc coping behind Max Verstappen and Ferrari behind Red Bull, mistakes cannot be affordable for the Maranello-based team if they want to stick with the championship. With a win in Silverstone and Austria, Ferrari seems to mark a comeback for the rest of the season. But with reliability issues underplay things could get bad in France if not everything is not done rightly.

“We will use a medium-high level of bodywork cooling, using the apertures of the cooling gills on the upper part of the bodywork. The track characteristics mean that we would have been doing this anyway to contribute as much as possible to tyre management, but the hot conditions will make this task even more demanding”, concluded Ferrari’s Aerodynamic head.

Carlos Sainz after another engine blow-up in Austria could start his race behind the grid after taking a new engine. Charles Leclerc will still get on the fight with Red Bull but it is going to be a tough task for the 24-year-old to fight both the Red Bulls alone.

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