Ferrari disappoints in qualifying: 'Has nothing to do with the new format'

Ferrari did not have the qualifying in Hungary that had been hoped for beforehand. Prior to the Hungarian GP weekend, team boss Frederic Vasseur still said his team could hope for a pole position. However, Charles Leclerc did not progress beyond sixth place in qualifying and Carlos Sainz was even eliminated in Q2. Vasseur argues that his team did not get it right in terms of tyre management.

Disappointing qualifying for Ferrari

It is well known that Ferrari has long struggled with tyre management and in Hungary, the Scuderia once again had problems with this. "Our performance today has nothing to do with the new format, which is the same for everybody. We struggled to get a clear picture of our situation before the session, but what let us down is that we did not do a good job in terms of tyre management. In the end, with Charles we missed out on being one row further up the grid by less than a tenth. We were matching Lewis for all the session, but we could not do it at the end," Vasseur told a press release from his team.

What can Ferrari do in the race?

In the race, high tyre wear is expected and that is unlikely to be to Ferrari's advantage. "As for the race, it’s hard to say how it will unfold, because teams were doing their long runs yesterday [Friday] on different compounds. Track conditions tomorrow will be completely different to Friday which means we all go into the race a bit blind. The opening lap will be crucial as it is quite difficult to overtake, as we saw in the Formula 3 and Formula 2 races, when there were big DRS trains. It will be an interesting challenge."