Sainz urges Ferrari to find a remedy for severe bouncing in high-speed corners

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz revealed that Ferrari has been suffering from severe bouncing in the high-speed cornerns of the Red Bull Ring which has heavily compromised the Scuderia’s performance at Barcelona and Spielberg.

Ferrari endured a difficult Saturday at the Red Bull Ring. The Scuderia was unable to challenge for top positions, and it appeared to have dropped down to fourth place in the pecking order with not only Red Bull and McLaren displaying a better performance, but Mercedes also leapfrogging the Maranello-based outfit with its recent upgrades.

The Italian outfit introduced a comprehensive host of upgrades at Barcelona with which the team continued the development path it kicked off in Imola.

The latest upgrade package was a disappointment for Ferrari as it hoped to close the gap to Red Bull further, but it looks to be only the fourth quickest team behind the reigning champion outfit, McLaren and Mercedes.

Expanding on Ferrari's issues, Sainz revealed that the team suffered from bouncing in the high-speed corners of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Spaniard said that the same problem has hindered Ferrari at the Red Bull Ring, and so severe was the issue that he and his team-mate Charles Leclerc were forced to lift off the throttle in Turns 7 and 9 which are the two fastest turn of the Styrian track. Sainz suggested that recent upgrades might have improved the SF-24's performance, but they brought the issue of bouncing back.

Speaking of his day, the Madrid-born driver added: "It was a more positive day than yesterday: we have gained more speed and made some changes that have definitely helped us overall. We are still struggling in fast corners but we are working very hard with the team to understand how to address it.

"We are where I imagined we could be, but I feel that we are improving and we were very close to P3. The goal for tomorrow is clearly the podium: we know it will be difficult, but we will give it our all, as we always do.

Charles Leclerc recovered well after lining up in P10 in the Spielberg Spring, having made up places to cross the line in P7 and score two points.

However, the six-time F1 race winner was surprised by the lack of pace after his team had introduced a comprehensive set of upgrades in Imola and at Barcelona.

"Today did not go particularly well. Our performance in the Sprint race this morning wasn’t great, after which we worked on changing the car set-up looking for those few precious tenths we were lacking both for qualifying and for the race tomorrow. I think that work paid off and we can move up the order tomorrow.

"In Q3, after an encouraging first run on used tyres, I had a good feeling and tried to push as hard as possible. Unfortunately I made a few mistakes in turns 4 and 6 and so I have to start from sixth.

"But there were some good points today and I believe we can aim for the podium. It seems we are working in the right direction and I hope we can do something good in the race," the Monegasque noted.

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur was delighted with the improvement the Scuderia achieved between Friday and Saturday, but he was still disappointed with the final outcome of qualifying.

"Overall, we have made a small step forward compared to yesterday, but in the end we were hoping to be a bit further forward on the grid. We improved in the last sector but we are still suffering a bit in a couple of corners.

"Carlos drove a solid qualifying and was just a hundredth of a second slower than (George) Russell while Charles was on a good lap, much faster than his previous one, before locking up at turn 4. It was a shame he had to do his first Q3 run on a scrubbed set rather than the on a new one.

Speaking of today's race, the Frenchman said: "As for the race, we saw today that DRS trains develop and if you are in the right position in it, then you can gain quite a bit. The counter effect of this is that if you are at the back of that train it’s easy to overheat the tyres and the car in general.

"So a lot will depend on the start and on lap 1, but compared to the Sprint, strategy and pit stops are involved and everyone will play a bit with these factors," Vasseur concluded.