“Our weaknesses are exposed when tyres are more used in the race,” Ferrari race director expects a closely-fought US GP despite Carlos Sainz’s pole position
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Ferrari deputy team principal and racing director Laurent Mekies
Carlos Sainz took his second pole position of the season, his third in terms of starting position, and the first in dry conditions. He edged out teammate Charles Leclerc by +0.065, who will be taking a penalty, and starting P12 as a result. Instead, it will be Max Verstappen who will start alongside the Spaniard.
Often this season, Ferrari have come out on top in qualifying, just to falter during the race. In the past, it’s mostly been their own mistakes or reliability failures that have been responsible. But recently, their tyre degradation has significantly worsened as compared to the Red Bull, which means they can no longer sustain their pace over a long stint.
Speaking after the qualifying session to Sky Sports, Ferrari’s race director Laurent Mekies addressed this: “Part of our strength to perform over one timed lap, we sometimes pay for it in the race. Our weaknesses are exposed when tyres are more used in the race. We are trying to keep the advantage during the race.”
Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies lauds Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz was put at an immediate disadvantage at the start of 2022: The car just did not suit him as well as it did Charles Leclerc. But slowly, the Spaniard has begun to recover, even if his ‘aquaplaning’ moment in Japan has dampened his bid for P2 in the championship. It was his fifth retirement of the season, but Laurent Mekies says that Sainz has been doing well in the races, normally.
The Ferrari race director said: “Carlos’ strong point has been the race. Meanwhile, Charles does extraordinary things in qualifying. Carlos did a very good job today. It’s his second pole and he has been very very close for a few races.” and further added: “Globally we may have been weaker in the race compared to qualifying.“
Mekies admitted the current race pace weakness of the F1-75: “If you look back at the races & remove the reliability issues and the mistakes we have done, you will find that quite a few times we would have had a good enough tyre management to win the race. However it’s true that our package is very good at extracting the potential of the tyres on a single lap, it’s a characteristics of our package that is making us a little bit less competitive in long stints.”
The Frenchman reaffirmed what Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have been saying for some time: That the team look to use the last four races as a bit of a testing ground, in order to be stronger for next year. This weekend will be a test to see how they are doing in that regard, and it’ll be interesting to see how Charles Leclerc performs in the race with the new components. Mekies expects a potential six-car fight.
Also Read: F1 Qualifying Report: Carlos Sainz clinches pole position in Austin
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)