Carlos Sainz pinpoints serious flaw with Ferrari SF-24 that ruined his Qatar Sprint Qualifying
Carlos Sainz was unhappy with the disobedient nature of the Ferrari SF-24 during the Sprint qualifying for the Qatar Sprint.
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Carlos Sainz (via IMAGO)
With Ferrari being in a close fight with McLaren, the prancing horses had to maximize their result from the ongoing Lusail weekend. However, they were met with a bad start as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc qualified P4 and P5 respectively for the Sprint race, which led the Spaniard to complain about how the SF-24 struggled with understeer throughout his laps.
Experts reckoned Lusail International Circuit to be McLaren‘s playground owing to the track featuring high-speed corners. On the other hand, Ferrari had made significant strides over the past few rounds and is now just 24 points behind the Woking-based outfit. This raised the hopes of the Tifosi as they thought the championship glory could finally return to Maranello after a 15-year-long drought.
Despite the hopes of Ferrari fans, both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz qualified behind the two McLaren cars. Though this was in line with the expert’s predictions, Sainz was extremely discontent with the stubborn behavior of the SF-24 around the 5.4-kilometre track.
We picked up a lot of understeer on the medium and just couldn’t turn the car.
Carlos Sainz said post Sprint qualifying
Carlos Sainz: We picked up a lot of understeer on the medium and just couldn't turn the car.
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) November 29, 2024
He added that even on the soft they still had the understeer issue.
However, the 30-year-old would be the lead Ferrari driver tomorrow after qualifying ahead of his teammate. This might give him an upper hand, which Leclerc might not like after the intra-team shenanigans that went down in Las Vegas.
Ferrari was concerned after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s understeer problems
With both of its drivers qualifying behind the McLaren pair, it was a major shock for the Italian giant after a good FP1 session. As each point’s value increases as the championship closes up, a few points lost to McLaren during the Sprint race alone could be the difference between the trophy heading to Maranello or Woking.
Moreover, team principal Fred Vasseur was also not happy with the result and was shocked by the SF-24 suddenly taking a U-turn. His stark revelation revealed the root cause for the understeer, but still a lot remained unanswered as George Russell triumphed again by qualifying on the front row for the Sprint.
We weren’t expecting this much understeer, the car felt much better in FP1. Of course it had a huge impact on our qualifying because you lose a lot of lap time like that. The understeer increases with the grip – so it was more noticeable in SQ3 on the soft tyre.
Fred Vasseur said post Sprint qualifying
Fred: "We weren't expecting *this* much understeer, the car felt much better in FP1. Of course it had a huge impact on our qualifying because you lose a lot of lap time like that. The understeer increases with the grip – so it was more noticeable in SQ3 on the S tyre."
— sara (@_allthatglitz) November 29, 2024
Thus, the ongoing round plus the Abu Dhabi GP race weekend could be considered McLaren’s territory. This would make winning the championship highly difficult for the Maranello-based outfit unless a miracle aids them.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)