Carlos Sainz believes the tyre usage traits that gave Ferrari such a difficult French Grand Prix, and which have led to an internal investigation, are actually embedded in the team’s Formula 1 design DNA.
Both Ferraris finished outside the points at Paul Ricard last weekend, with Sainz 11th and Charles Leclerc right back in 16th, after significant tyre problems in race trim.
“It’s been a trend and I would go as far as to say it’s been a trend for years in the team,” Sainz said.
“In December they talked to me about this issue and I let it pass, I didn’t think it was going to be such a big thing – maybe with the new tyres in this year everything could change.
“But it was clear since Bahrain that there is something going on with the car and with the tyres that we don’t understand and I felt it pretty much immediately.
“Since then it’s been in the back of our heads going into every race, this front limitation.
“You could see it clearly in Portimao with me, then you could see it clearly in France.”
Although Leclerc has set two pole positions on the unusual demands of Monaco and Baku, and the car’s qualifying in general has been quite respectable – it’s clearly the third-fastest car in qualifying – in the races the legacy of Ferrari’s car limitations going back to 2019 have been quite apparent.
Ever since that season the limitation of the Ferrari chassis has tended to be the front end. It could be more effectively mitigated with the power advantage that car carried but since the technical directives of last year that has been rather more difficult to achieve.
The longer the corners and the more emphasis is put onto the front-end grip of the car, the more the Ferrari suffers relative to the competition. When that’s combined with low-grip surfaces, that trait is especially punished.
“We knew going into France it was a very front limited circuit and that we might struggle on Friday,” Sainz added.
“But it was actually pretty warm, the track was in decent condition, and we didn’t see any indications that the front was going to be a limitation.
“But suddenly on Sunday with a track condition change it was a very big issue.
“If we went out on track right now [in Austria] with these high temperatures the problem would be the rear, and when we are rear-limited we are more balanced to the whole field.
“But if the clouds come or it starts to rain, that’s when the front graining appears, no matter what the track. That’s where we know we are weaker.”
Despite his belief that the weakness is deep-seated in the Ferrari design, Sainz is optimistic that work to mitigate it might pay off to a degree – and added that he’s found it fascinating to watch how a team of Ferrari’s resources has tackled it so far.
“Even if it comes I wouldn’t mind because we are already trying a few things as a team to see what might help, so it would be interesting to go on track in very difficult conditions to see if there’s a pattern or an improvement,” he said.
“It’s been a very interesting few days, super-interesting. Those three days in Maranello since France, seeing a big team launch such an investigation and seeing this plan to recover from the problems.
“It was great to see the whole factory joining together and every department trying to put their imagination and their theories out there.
“We’ve put together solutions in short, medium and long term. Short term is to mitigate the issue. The medium and long term one is to solve it completely.
“It’s going to be an interesting process.”
