Ferrari Falls Flat: Communication Woes Plague Leclerc and Sainz in F1 Australian GP Qualifying 2023; Sarcastic Remarks Show Frustration with Second Row Absence

Published：2023/4/2 08:44

Scuderia Ferrari fell behind their rivals in the SF-23’s only one-lap showdown. Carlos Sainz was 5th and Charles Leclerc was 7th in qualifying for the Australian GP, ​​the third round of F1 on Saturday, April 1, allowing one Aston Martin and Mercedes to take the lead.

It’s been two weeks since the last race, when Leclerc complained about his late instructions from race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros. There seems to be another problem with communication.

Ferrari had planned to have Leclerc towed by Sainz this time. Leclerc had been told by Padros that his team-mate would be pulling him down the main straight. However, this strategy resulted in time loss in corners.

Sainz, who headed into the build lap three seconds ahead, gave way to Leclerc on the exit of Turn 4 after two short straights. Over the radio, Leclerc said sarcastically: “I really want to thank Carlos for pulling me through Turns 3 and 4.”

After letting Leclerc lead, Sainz pushed two cars ahead after hearing over the radio that Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and George Russell (Mercedes) were approaching from behind during a push lap.

However, the two of them were in the same build rap as they were enthusiastic. As a result, Sainz was forced to slow down and lose heat in his tyres. Tires were the most important thing in this qualifying, where the track surface temperature was only about 20 degrees Celsius. Sainz was ill-prepared and had no choice but to head to the timed lap.

“If we had a clean lap, we would have been in the top three,” said Sainz, who took off his helmet. bottom.

“I had to slow down quite a bit to get two or three cars in front that the team told me they were on a push lap. It wasn’t.”

Leclerc, who was 0.063 seconds behind Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), acknowledged that he “didn’t do a very good job” in terms of his own driving, but said that his towing strategy instead led to time loss. showed an idea.

“Unfortunately, I don’t really know what happened on the second run in Q3. Was there a miscommunication with Carlos or what?”

“I was behind Carlos all the way through the first sector and I lost a lot of time because of that. We have to look at this as a team.”

It’s true that qualifying didn’t live up to Typhon’s expectations, but it’s the final race, not the qualifying, that affects the championship.

Sainz said: “The positives are that I’m pretty happy with the car. I pushed really hard and managed to put some strong laps in. I think the changes for tomorrow are going in the right direction. That’s it,” he said with hope.

The Scuderia has apparently been working on the set-up with a focus on the race rather than qualifying. In the opening two rounds, the qualifying was second only to the Red Bull RB19, but the race pace did not show up at all due to tire degradation.

Asked about his confidence ahead of the race, Sainz said: “The changes we made to the car are focused on tomorrow, so it may not look particularly good today.”

Looking ahead to the final, Leclerc also said, “I think the machine is finished quite well,” and added, “We compromised the qualifying pace a bit for the sake of the race pace, so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens tomorrow.”

Last year’s runner-up, Ferrari is currently sitting fourth in the constructors’ rankings. They are 12 points behind Mercedes and Aston Martin and 49 points behind leaders Red Bull.

Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the pole position in the 2023 F1 Australian GP qualifying. George Russell was 2nd and Lewis Hamilton was 3rd, followed by the Melbourne cars.

The final race will start the formation lap at 14:00 on April 2 (Sunday) Japan time, and will compete for the championship by completing 58 laps of the 5,278m Albert Park Circuit.in JapanDAZNandFuji TV NEXTIt will be delivered live and broadcast live.

F1 Australian Grand Prix Feature