Carlos Sainz feels there remains “something intrinsic” Ferrari has yet to understand with this year’s F1 car.
Although steps have been made to eradicate the fundamental issues with the SF-23, the last two races before the summer break in Hungary and Belgium underlined the vagaries of a car Sainz continues to claim is “very peaky”.
The performances of the car in both races were the reverse of what was expected going into the events at the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps.
Sainz claims the team is “spending more time than ever” in attempting to turn around a season in which it has only scored three podiums from 12 races – all from Charles Leclerc – to leave it lying fourth in the constuctors’ standings.
“It’s no secret that this year we’ve lacked some consistency from the car,” said Sainz. “It’s very difficult to predict which circuits we’re going to be quick at and which we’re not going to be quick.
“The best example was the difference between Hungary and Spa. We expected Hungary to be a good weekend, we expected Spa to be a weaker one, and it was actually the opposite.
“It just shows there is maybe something intrinsic that we don’t fully understand and we cannot predict very well.
“This unpredictability, this lack of understanding, is exactly what we are focusing on, to try and piece together everything. This is where our focus is going to be this weekend, and obviously in the second half of the season.”
Whilst Sainz states the main weakness of the car that first materialised in testing in Bahrain was swiftly identified, it has taken all of the team’s efforts so far to try and eradicate it, albeit so far to no avail.
“There’s the wind sensitivity, the track temperature sensitivity that we have, which at the moment makes it a very peaky car,” said Sainz. “What we want is to understand exactly the reasons for that.
“We’re doing a pretty good job of trying, and trying completely different things and having different theories that we’re putting together for next year’s car. Hopefully next year it pays off. At the moment, we can only focus on that and we’re doing everything we can.
“The whole development programme has been focused on improving that main weakness that we have. Then there are many other factors that we are also trying to figure out.”
Sainz concedes the margins are fine between Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and McLaren in the battle to be best of the rest behind Red Bull.
With Ferrari currently 56 points behind second-placed Mercedes, Sainz added: “What we need to focus on in these last 10 races is putting the weekend together and seeing if we can finish in that second place in the constructors’, which is not going to be easy.”
One of the positives for Sainz is that the car has at least improved over one lap in qualifying. The problem for Ferrari is that it has often failed to capitalise, scoring only three podiums in 12 races, all from Charles Leclerc.
“On the good side of things, the car always offers some good opportunities in qualifying to maybe qualify a bit ahead of what the race pace of the car might be,” said Sainz.
“If you do a good lap in quali maybe you can hold on to a podium place, if you then have a smooth race without too many troubles.
“The focus will be getting the car again quick in the race mainly, and trying to hold on to those good qualifying sessions if we have the opportunity.”
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