Ferrari has been facing difficulties during the Emilia-Romagna event, especially in the qualifying sessions. Despite showing impressive speed in practice, they fell behind Red Bull and McLaren during the qualifying rounds and the race itself.
Team boss Fred Vasseur remained optimistic, believing that if they perform well in qualifying, they would do the same in the race. However, Charles Leclerc, one of Ferrari’s drivers, expressed disappointment over their qualifying performance, stating that they lacked speed compared to their rivals.
Initially, Leclerc attributed the issue to the first sector during qualifying, where he believed there was room for improvement. However, after the race, he identified Ferrari’s electrical energy deployment settings as the main problem, particularly affecting their speed at tracks where top speed is crucial.
Leclerc’s comments prompted further investigation into Ferrari’s performance data. Analysis revealed that there was indeed a consistent difference in starting speeds between Ferrari and Red Bull cars in previous races. Despite efforts to improve, Ferrari struggled to match the top speeds achieved by Red Bull.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari’s other driver, also showed similar trends in his performance data compared to Leclerc. While there were instances where Sainz outperformed his teammate, the overall pattern suggested a slight starting speed difference between Ferrari and Red Bull cars.
Although Ferrari plans to make adjustments to their engine settings through software mapping updates, the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix, with its tight confines, may not heavily rely on engine power for success.
