Scuderia Ferrari leaves Hungary having secured seventh place with Charles Leclerc and eighth with Carlos Sainz. The race itself didn’t produce any great drama, although for Leclerc there were some unlooked-for incidents in the whole lane.
First part. Charles was on used Mediums for the launch and got ahead of Guanyu Zhou for fifth place, while Carlos got down really well on new Softs, passing no smaller than five buses to tuck in behind his platoon- mate. The SF-23s had good pace in the first stint, matching the McLarens and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, but at his first hole stop to switch to Hard tyres, Charles ’ race got complicated a wheel gun didn’t work and he lost around seven seconds, dropping several places. Charles soon made up ground, closing on Carlos, so that they were sixth and seventh and their pace on this emulsion was also harmonious. Leclerc came in for his alternate stop on stage 43, taking on another set of Hards, but he exceeded the whole lane speed limit on his way in, for which he was given a five alternate penalty to add to his total race time. Carlos tried to extend his stint, but he and the platoon decided on the coming stage to come in for another set of Hard tyres. In the ending stages, the SF-23 lost pace and Russell, with fresher tyres on his Mercedes was suitable to pass Sainz for seventh and also got to within under five seconds of Leclerc, therefore taking sixth place without having to pass him on track.
One further before the break. The crown is back in action incontinently coming week, on the veritably different Gym- Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian Grand Prix, which is the final round previous to the summer break.
Charles Leclerc# 16
I was relatively happy with my pace in the first stint, as we were managing effects really well and keeping up with the buses ahead. also, we lost time on our first hole stop, which put us on the aft bottom and I had to push to recover some positions. The penalty we got after the alternate stop was another thing that made the effects more delicate, so each in all, it wasn’t a great day.
I’m looking forward to Gym and hope that we can finish the first half of the season on a high there.
Carlos Sainz# 55
We had a good launch, making up five places on the first stage, and a veritably good first stint with the Softs, managing to stretch the tyre life. Unfortunately, with the Hard emulsion and longer stints to do, we plodded with hindered declination and didn’t have the pace of the frontal runners, which is our main weakness at the moment.
We were awaiting more at this track and we need to look into our main areas of enhancement.
Frédéric Vasseur- Team star
Our result is rather a poor moment. It was a complicated race with Charles, primarily because he lost around seven seconds at the whole stop, which was a massive detention, because of an issue with a wheel- gun. This also put him in business and also there was also the 5-alternate hole lane speeding penalty.
With Carlos, we took the threat of starting him on Softs and it was a good move in the early stages, as he made up places. But we knew it would be relatively tricky for him as he’d have to do a lot of tyre operation, switching earlier to the Hard emulsion. still, starting eleventh and finishing where he did, ahead of Alonso, I’d say wasn’t too bad a result.
I have the feeling that we aren’t that far off the pace in terms of performance, but we didn’t put everything together over the whole weekend. We showed we had the eventuality on Friday, but also we didn’t make it for Saturday or moment in the race. Now we really need to concentrate on Belgium, because it’s always important to go into the summer break with a good result, find further pace and minimise miscalculations.
