Ferrari concerned about its pace in Austria

By announcing even before the real start of this 2020 season in Austria, that no developments would come to the SF1000 for the two races on the program on the Red Bull Rings, Ferrari had already indicated that his start to the championship would undoubtedly be complicated.

Charles Leclerc had even admitted that the Scuderia single-seaters would be 99% more in difficulty than in 2019, where the Monegasque had taken pole before playing for victory until the end against Max Verstappen (Redbull).

A prediction verified yesterday during the first free practices, since only Leclerc finished free practice 1 in the top 10 more than a second behind the Mercedes W11 head Lewis Hamilton when Sebastian Vettel concluded FP2 by more than six tenths, beaten by the Racing Point RP20 of Sergio Pérez.

A situation considered even more worrying than expected by Charles Leclerc. “It feels good to be back in the car, but on the other hand, it’s not a good day for us, analyzed the former Sauber driver yesterday.

Probably even worse than we expected. A lot of cars are very close, which is exciting to see on the one hand, but on the other hand we would like to fight a little more in the standings, so we have to work hard for this Saturday and we will see how it goes. »

On a track where the curves condition long straight sections, the cornering speed appears an important element which does not seem to be well digested by the SF1000, when the car 2019 seemed much faster.

“In terms of speed in the turns, we seem to lose compared to the others, comments Leclerc. The balance was pretty good but I guess it's not just one thing, it's the whole package we need to improve.

We will try different routes for Saturday, to try to make the car work in a different way and see if we can gain performance…”

And don't let Mercedes already take off in every way.