Ferrari’s miserable start to new season continues, as both drivers struggle to extract performance out of poor SF1000 package during Friday Free Practice sessions at Belgian GP.
Charles managed 1.45:759 lap, while Sebastian did a 1.46:179 in the morning practice session.Those times were good enough for 14th and 15th respectively on the time sheet. They completed 33 laps between them.
During afternoon second practice session, Charles managed 1.45:440, while Sebastian lapped around two and a half tenths slower than his team mate with a 1.45:683.Those times are only good enough for 15th and 17th places respectively. In the second session they completed 40 laps between them.
Ferrari was nearly 1.7 seconds slower than leaders at the top in both sessions and they even 0.5 seconds slower than Alfa Romeo with same engine back of the car.With the current speed, there is high possibility of both cars drop out of Q1 during Saturday qualifying.
Ferrari statement on Friday Struggles
“Scuderia Ferrari did not enjoy the best of Fridays at the Belgian Grand Prix. The team struggled to get the tyres to work properly with both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel’s cars and so the performance of the two SF1000s was considerably worse than expected, even if the team knew before taking to the track that Spa-Francorchamps would not be an easy track this year.”
Charles Leclerc
“It was a very difficult day. We are really struggling with the balance of the car. We tried quite a few things in the second session, including something quite aggressive in terms of downforce level but it didn’t quite work out.
It’s probably a surprise to be so far back, but we are just lacking pace at the moment and have to work hard to catch up. But I’m not expecting any miracles this weekend. Our job as drivers is to give our best and that’s what I am trying to do. It has happened before that we have been struggling on Friday and then come up with a solution on Saturday, so I hope this will be the case tomorrow.”
Sebastian Vettel
“It was a difficult day for us. The car was tricky and difficult to drive and we are not quite where we should be as we struggled with the balance. We are looking to find options for the set up and we tried something different.
I am sure tomorrow will be a bit better, but we don’t yet know what the weather will be like. We had a glimpse of wet conditions this year in Austria therefore we are aware it won’t be the easiest thing to deal with, but it always provides a chance to mix things up, so let’s wait and see what happens.”
