Not for the first time in the team’s history Ferrari looked fast on Monza on Friday, only to not quite live up to expectations when it mattered on Saturday afternoon.
However in the end fourth and fifth was a solid performance for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, although unfortunately the latter goes back to P10 thanks to the penalty he carried over from Zandvoort.
The team hoped to be at least third and leading the pursuit of McLaren, and the fact that Max Verstappen has jumped ahead of everyone is a source of frustration. Nevertheless there’s still a lot to play for on Sunday, especially in Leclerc’s case from the second row.
“I’m happy in a way that I think we’ve maximised the package that we had today,” he said when I asked him about his session.
“And I think I did a really good first lap in Q3, unfortunately, in the second run of Q3 I was a little bit in the front with nobody, or just you Yuki in front, and that makes a big difference here.
“So there wasn’t much more we could I’ve done, but I think we did a good job maximising the results now. And looking at tomorrow, I think McLaren and Red Bull are too far ahead for now.”
Asked if he had a bittersweet feeling Leclerc added: “It’s always bitter when you are fighting for fourth, fifth, third place, so maybe, but at the end, it’s kind of what we expected as well.
“But we shouldn’t be satisfied. We should be pushing as much as we can to try and turn that situation around, which is what we are doing, but at the end of the day, I did the lap that I wanted.
“I put everything together. I’m very happy with my lap, actually. And I don’t think there was much more possible. So that I’m positive, but obviously starting fourth isn’t great.”
However Monza races are rarely straightforward. In recent years the likes of Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo scored surprise wins when luck fell their way, and last year Leclerc himself did a great job to win from fourth on the grid. His main job in Sunday’s race is to be the man ready to take any opportunity that might come his way.
“We are quite fast in the straights. So it should be an exciting race. I think on pure pace, we don’t have a chance. Unfortunately, I think McLaren and the Red Bull of Max was way too strong in terms of race run. But with the start, with the top speed we have – we all believe in it, but it’s going to be tough.
“Yeah, there are some special races here. I’ll believe in it until the end, and we’ll see what’s possible. But let’s say on pure pace, I don’t think it’s possible.”
Hamilton was in upbeat mood after the session, pleased that he’d been able to maintain the momentum that he’d established in Zandvoort last week, notwithstanding his crash in the race.
“I think the progress from last weekend, we carried that through this week,” he said when I asked him on that subject. “And so I’ve been relatively happy with the car. P1 the car felt great, I think that’s where it felt probably the best. And then we went into P2 we made changes into qualifying, and I think it was the most we could get from it.
“Obviously, with the penalty and everyone being so close, it’s naturally, going be tough to overtake everybody ahead of me. We’ve got good top line speed, so I’m really hoping that I can try to make up some ground.
“I need to do that. Probably a good start, good first lap, good strategy. We’ll go away now and try and figure out what we can do to try to leapfrog the guys up ahead of me, if possible.”
In FP3 Hamilton was heard asking his engineer for “more juice,” the car’s good straightline speed due to the low drag setup the team chose.
“It’s ultimately, downforce we need,” he said. “We’re quick on the straight, but then in the middle sector, we’re losing like three or four tenths, I think it was, and then a couple tenths in the last sector.
“We’re lacking the load, but we’re quick on the straight. We but if we went up on wing, for some reason the efficiency is just off. We can’t catch that four-tenths in this middle sector unless we go up a lot and then just lose it all down the straights. So this is the ultimate that we can have.”
He added: “We’re not where we want to be. We don’t have the pace that we want naturally, and that is what it is. But fourth and fifth today, with Charles and I, it’s good to be close.
“That’s definitely progress, and I know I can progress from there, so I’m going to keep on working at it with my engineers to extract more from the people around me.”