Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have bemoaned the fact their SF-23s have become very wind sensitive and in need of an immediate fix.
From threatening starting positions of fourth and fifth on the grid for the British Grand Prix, the duo just managed to finish in the points in ninth and 10th.
Leclerc was compromised by Ferrari’s desire to go for an early pit stop, with a second under the initial virtual safety car following Kevin Magnussen’s engine failure dropping the Monégasque to 10th from where he only managed to recover a place.
As for Sainz, the Spanish driver pitted six laps before the full safety car was deployed. In being on the hard tyres, and with the team opting to keep him out, his sixth place at the restart resulted in him just claiming a solitary point.
Leclerc claims, however, that at a wide-open, flat circuit such as Silverstone, his performance was heavily affected by the wind.
“At the moment, we still seem very sensitive to the change of conditions, and when I say change of conditions, I mean mostly the wind,” assessed Leclerc.
“When we have a change of wind, our car becomes extremely difficult. On that, we have made steps forward but there are still quite big steps to do.”
Sainz, who was overtaken by three cars in one lap after the restart due to being on the hard tyre, concurred.
He said: “In general, we were not very strong out there. Very windy, very tricky car to drive again, very difficult to be consistent in these conditions.
“We certainly struggled a lot on traction in all the tailwinds. We couldn’t get down on power, and also with the fights and a harder tire, it made the fighting and everything very tricky.
“We know it’s a weakness, we know where it is. We see it in the wind tunnel, we see it in our car, we see it in driving, with the feeling, so it’s just a matter of developing.
“At least we’ve made some progress, but again, Silverstone has put us back in a position where we know we need to improve the car.”
Insisting there are positives, he added: “It’s not terrible, the high speed. We improved it in Austria, and we confirmed that (at Silverstone).
“Over one lap, and then in the race in the high-speed corners, we were not bad at all.
“But clearly the tyre deg, the tyre energies, the wind sensitivities, the unpredictability of the car – on one lap was I was three or four-tenths of a second quicker than others just because of a gust of wind – so yeah, we still need to focus on that.”
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