After a shock pole position and second place in Monaco two weeks ago, Ferrari arrived in Baku expecting “back to reality” given the high-speed sections of the track.
But the strength of the Ferrari SF21 at slow speeds was again evident when Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished the races in P3 and P4 respectively on Friday.
Both drivers were quick to downplay proposals that they could re-include in the battle for pole and Baku victory, believing that Mercedes, who failed to finish any of the cars in the top 10 in FP2, will get back on their feet on Saturday would.
Firmly convinced that Friday’s performance hadn’t changed the team’s goals for the remainder of the weekend, Ferrari Sports Director Laurent Mekies gave both Mercedes and McLaren a tip to recover.
“Of course Red Bull will be very, very strong, they are not the goal this weekend,” said Mekies.
“We have no doubt that Mercedes will be back up there tomorrow. So we don’t let the classification fool us.
“I think we want to be the best of the rest right now. There are a lot of good guys fighting for that position – the two McLarens we expected would be very strong here. We still think they are very strong here.
“There have been many, many cars aiming for these positions. But that’s what we’re trying to get A P5, a P4 is probably the best position we could have. “
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Ferrari stood out in Monaco thanks to the slow nature of the track, with the car’s strength again being evident in the tight corners of the second sector of the Baku City Circuit.
Mekies stated that the GPS data that Ferrari had shown in very slow corners showed a “pretty good picture” and focused on improving the car in the middle and fast corners.
“This is our strength at the moment,” said Mekies.
“As a result, the focus of improvement is on the medium and high-speed corners, of which fortunately there aren’t many in Baku, which also explains why we’re not doing so badly, at least for Friday.
“On the other hand, there are very long straights here and we know that we are not yet where we want to be with the unit.
“The strengths at the moment are the slow corners. We have confirmed this on various tracks.
“When you think about the race, you have to make the tires work and behave and deteriorate, so that’s pretty much our focus right now.”
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