Ferrari on track after bottoming out

Leclerc impressed with the fourth qualifying for the Eifel GP, as he was among the top six in all three sessions. His team-mate Sebastian Vettel again missed Q3 and starts in eleventh.

Ferrari hit rock bottom at the high-speed stadiums Spa and Monza, with Leclerc finishing 13th as the best-placed driver in both cases.

Mekies said that Leclerc’s performance at the Nürburgring is important because it shows that the team is on the right track in terms of development.

“Charles did a very good job, but overall I think it’s a good day for the team,” said Mekies. “We come from very tough weeks and months. Hence, it is a good encouragement in our efforts to find a good direction of development back.

“Not so much for today, it is not so important for today, but at least for the direction for the future and for the next year. So it is a good sign in this direction. “

Mekies pointed out that recent upgrades, including new parts introduced in Germany, played a role.

“I think there are a lot of factors,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be upset about that, but I think the first part is hopefully that we have a few small upgrades both in Sochi and here, and as I said, we hopefully bottomed out a couple of times ago Weeks and we try to reconstruct the solutions to our problems.

“It is a long way. I’m sure it will be an up and down but I think today is the first step in that direction after Sochi and hopefully the car will perform a little more. Then of course Charles did a very, very good qualifying. Very sharp straight away. It extracted everything that could be extracted.

“And finally we must not forget that it is a very specific weekend without a race on Friday, there will always be a small change in the order, for better or for worse. So I think it’s a combination of the three things, if I’m honest. “

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Mekies said a key factor is that the tires work well in the cold conditions.

“Before we came here, we were certainly very concerned that the tires would work in these conditions. Probably the only time this season. At least the only time we’ve come into this window so far, so we were very anxious to do whatever we can on the car to get things going.

“Even if I forget the competition, it has proven to be appropriate for us in terms of the way we work. I don’t know how much our competitors suffered or not.

“So I’d like to think that it was just a lean and sharp Saturday and that the upgrades gave us those extra tenths or something that can make a difference in such a tight field.

“You are two tenths ahead and you are P4 and you are in good shape, you are three tenths behind and suddenly you are out of Q3. I think we have to be realistic about it. “