“It’s all about tomorrow” Christian Horner remains optimistic about beating Ferrari with Sergio Perez handing an extra advantage
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Christian Horner
In tomorrow’s race, Charles Leclerc will start in pole position for the 16th time in his career. He will hope that he can win the race tomorrow, and make it 5 wins from pole. Over one lap, it did seem that Ferrari has the advantage, as Leclerc pulled 3 tenths to Verstappen in the final run to put it on pole position, helped a little along the way by Carlos Sainz.
Carlos Sainz will be taking penalties for the race tomorrow, and starting from the back of the grid, so the only reason that he was in Q3 in the first place was to tow Charles Leclerc. It’s not all pretty for Ferrari for tomorrow’s race, however, and as said by Nico Rosberg on the broadcast, they seemed to have worse tyre degradation than Red Bull on the longer runs.
It has been the man taking pole position taking the victory on the last three races in France, and Charles Leclerc has done that much, but it is not out of the question that like on other occasions such as Miami or many other races this season where he had a failure or a strategy misstep, that Red Bull and Max Verstappen can take advantage. They are certainly in a chance to repeat this feat again tomorrow.
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Christian Horner: Ferrari had the one-lap advantage
In qualifying, Ferrari seemed to have the measure of Red Bull, as they have pretty much all year. However, they have not performed as strongly in the races. Red Bull also have the advantage in Sector 2, which contains the Mistral straight. It was here where Ferrari decided to use Carlos Sainz to tow Charles Leclerc and cut down the deficit on the straight.
Even without the tow, it seemed as if Leclerc would be taking pole anyways, as the gain was about a tenth or so only. This was the view of Christian Horner, who, as reported by GPBlog, conceded that Ferrari was faster in qualifying: “I think we would have been a tenth closer, but in that one lap Ferrari had the advantage.”
Horner also added that Red Bull and Ferrari were using two different approaches to the circuit: “There are two concepts of attacking this circuit. Ferrari has more downforce, we’re more trimmed out so it’s all about tomorrow.”
Of course, Red Bull did not really have the option to use the tow with Verstappen, as Sergio Perez had to focus on his own qualifying as well, with him starting third during the race, after a weekend where he, by his own admission, had struggled. Carlos Sainz starting from the back is also crucial, as it immediately means that for most of the race, Leclerc will have to contend with both Red Bulls alone. All is possible in the race tomorrow.
Also Read: “We are only just halfway,” Christian Horner ‘worried’ after Ferrari’s resurgence in recent races
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