Ferrari’s much-improved performance in qualifying ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix has caught the attention of rival teams.
Charles Leclerc will line up fourth on the grid for today’s race, having qualified within seven tenths of a second of pole-winner Max Verstappen. Leclerc’s new team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr qualified eighth.While all 10 teams are lapping slower than last year due to new aerodynamic restrictions, Ferrari are much closer to their 2020 pace than their rivals.
Ferrari were expected to make gains with their new power unit for 2021, but the team’s overall pace was of surprise to some of their rivals.
“I’d say, to be honest, the works team have taken actually a really quite impressive step based on today,” says Williams’s head of vehicle performance Dave Robson.
“I think Leclerc was exceptional. So I’m sure that some of it is a good step up in the power unit.
“But it’s not so obvious next door at [Ferrari customers] Haas, although I guess they’ve got new drivers and there’s a bit more going on there. I think it’s still a bit too early to say. I’m quite sure that the Ferrari power unit would have stepped up from where it was last year.”
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Alpine’s executive director Marcin Budkoswski was also impressed by what he saw from Ferrari.
“I think that group with McLaren, with Ferrari, with AlphaTauri, with ourselves, Aston Martin and I think Alfa Romeo were not far off either – that group is very, very tight.
“It’s almost like fifth to 16th is going to be tight and circuit-to-circuit, conditions-to-conditions it’s going to be variable.”
Leclerc produced several impressive qualifying performances during 2020, but often couldn’t sustain the same pace over a race distance. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who will start between the two Ferraris, suspects they’ll be stronger over a race distance today.
“We saw Charles put in some big qualifying [results] last year but didn’t have the race pace to maintain it. I think it’s a different story this year, we’ll see.
“I expect him to have decent race pace as well. So I think he’ll be there ’til the end.”
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carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
28th March 2021, 13:12
As a Ferrari fan, I was also surprised by their big improvements. But we really shouldn’t be! It’s Ferrari. They should be winning. Everyone has been used to a disappointing Ferrari for the past decade, that we’re now glad to see them qualify 4th. I suppose it is impressive how they developed a decent new engine in such a short period of time.
Only Facts!
28th March 2021, 13:13
Leclerc is the cheapest 0.5sec in F1 nowadays.
I think it was Ron Dennis who invented that metric. He was referring to Senna.
ForzaAlonsoF1
28th March 2021, 13:13
I’ve a fairly loose grip on these things, but didn’t I hear a rumour about the engine sanction on their oil burning was only effective for a year – hence the big gain? Can anyone confirm?
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
28th March 2021, 15:27
Better check their fuel usage
Bio
28th March 2021, 15:58
We already know which car willl be first inspected by the FIA…
Francesco
29th March 2021, 4:02
Domenicali , the boss, is italian…….so things are changing for us….obviously was pointless spend too much time and money in this car that was already born wrong made…..next year things will change drastically…so Mercedes show off will end soon. . Put Hamilton in another car and I’m curious if he can really deliver the same results. …… Forza Ferrari sempre e comunque.