The Ferrari glass after Budapest qualifying
Is the glass half full or half empty? Certainly, Ferrari arrived in Budapest with great expectations given the favorable characteristics of the Hungaroring circuit, but it is also true that the team led by Frederic Vasseur played very carefully on the communication front so as not to raise expectations too much for the Hungarian GP weekend. But then the track started to speak and, after a super Friday, it was normal for fans to start thinking, even if only remotely, about pole position. Which, in the end, however, slipped away by 12 thousandths and not at the hands of one of the two Mercedes that had dominated all Q3s of the season so far, but with a surge from Lando Norris‘s McLaren.
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Frederic Vasseur Speaks
“How much is 12 thousandths of a gap in qualifying? It’s the most painful question – joked the Ferrari team principal at the end of qualifying to Sky microphones – for the night. In Q3 all the top cars, Verstappen’s but also Charles’s and Lewis’s, were all a little slower than the previous attempt, but then there was also Russell who had a problem and I didn’t understand if he lost something on the track. But in general, my feeling is that the track was perhaps a little slower at the beginning of the last attempt”.
Vasseur, however, does not give up at the start and, indeed, focuses on the race, not only because in Formula 1 this year we have seen many times how anything can happen, but also because the two SF-26s have shown consistent pace and can therefore attack against Mercedes and McLaren: “We have good race pace and that’s also why we are a little disappointed after the end of qualifying. And this even if second and third place are probably our best performance in Q3 since the start of the season. But we are equally disappointed because the pace was there from the beginning of the weekend”.
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New set of Softs, a boost for Hamilton?
“Charles’s session was very chaotic because – he adds – on the first lap he had traffic, on the second the yellow flag from Hadjar, and therefore had to put on a second set very early. The end of the session, however, was very tough for Lewis and it’s a shame because it had gone very well until that misunderstanding with Piastri”. However, there is also an extra weapon for Sir Lewis, and that is the new Soft tire that the seven-time world champion saved from qualifying and which could help him in race strategies, especially after the penalty that forces him to start from the fifth (and not the second) grid slot: “We certainly didn’t save it by chance; we’re not keeping it to take it to the Netherlands but to use it in the race,” concluded the sly Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur.
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