Better you, no you
The Australian GP that opened this new era of Formula 1 saw a triumphant Mercedes – capable of bringing home the one-two finish that everyone predicted – but also a Ferrari more competitive than yesterday’s forecasts, with Leclerc and Hamilton finishing the race in third and fourth position and showing themselves capable, especially thanks to an extraordinary start, of making life difficult for the silver arrows during the first stint.
In the cool-down room, before receiving the trophies on the podium, George Russell and Leclerc himself teased each other regarding the performance of their respective cars. Lighting the fuse was the Englishman who, perhaps to respond to the dejected comments made yesterday by Leclerc after qualifying, told the Monegasque that “you guys weren’t that slow after all“. A comment on the apparent closeness in performance between the SF-26 and the W22 which, however, did not overly convince the red #16.
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“You messed up”
“Yes, but yesterday in qualifying you guys…” Leclerc replied, highlighting the eight tenths dealt by the first of the silver arrows to the Prancing Horse driver himself on a single lap. “Yes… I think you guys messed up a bit in Q3“, Russell concluded. Skirmishes that we have seen many times in the past in similar situations but which also suggest how perhaps, over in Brackley, there is actually a bit of fear regarding Ferrari’s growth potential, which at the moment seems to be the only team on the grid capable of putting, from time to time, its wheels ahead of those of the silver cars.
