Ferrari F1 “definitely not as fast as in Monaco”

Ferrari saw a surprising boost in performance during the Monaco race weekend when the team’s SF21 car shone on the slow layout and put Charles Leclerc in pole position.

Damage from a fall at the end of qualifying ultimately prevented Leclerc from starting the race, but Sainz finished second for Ferrari, marking his first podium for the team.

Both Ferrari drivers quickly downplayed the chances of the team staying in shape in Baku, believing the high-speed sections would wipe their advantage.

In Friday’s practice, however, Sainz finished third in both FP1 and FP2, while Leclerc finished fourth in the afternoon, despite hitting the barrier in a fast lap at Turn 15.

Sainz accepted that Ferrari “was definitely a bit faster than we expected” in Baku, but the team wasn’t as quick as it was at the Monaco weekend compared to their rivals.

“It’s also true that I got a couple of tugs on my good laps,” explained Sainz. “In the long run we didn’t see the pace very clearly. So maybe the big picture isn’t as clear as it gets.

“Tomorrow will probably be a better indicator but we are definitely not as fast as we were in Monaco, that’s for sure. I think Red Bull is faster in both the short and long term and we just have to bow our heads.” and find out if we can find a little more lap time. “

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Leclerc agreed with Sainz’s belief that Ferrari had exceeded expectations in Baku, but remained cautious about the threat McLaren and Mercedes would pose, despite both trailing Ferrari on Friday.

“I think McLaren is very, very fast but for some reason they didn’t show it today,” said Leclerc. “Maybe it was less clean compared to us. I have the feeling that they are a bit ahead of us here. We have to wait tomorrow.

“Definitely Red Bull and Mercedes, I don’t know exactly what happened either, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be ahead. And it’s basically going to be a fight with McLaren, that’s our main competitor, so we have to do it.” We sure do everything perfectly because they are making very few mistakes this year.

“So we’ll try to maximize our potential and hopefully we can be way ahead of them in qualifying.”

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

But McLaren driver Lando Norris was less optimistic about his chances after finishing eighth in FP2, more than half a second behind Leclerc’s time in P4.

“I think it looks very close between us, AlphaTauri, Renault and so on,” said Norris. “Ferrari and Red Bull see us pretty far ahead of us. So it’s going to be tough. I think just reaching Q3 is the main goal.”

“We’re pretty far from Red Bull and Ferrari, both in qualifying and racing. Hopefully we can make some improvements tomorrow and find something. It’s not that bad. The car feels relatively good. Of course there are to try some. ” and improve overnight.

“But we’re a little too far away to do something special.