In the last two races, being in Russia and Turkey, Ferrari have had the pleasure of having one of their cars start from the back row – but for a good reason. The recent power unit upgrade has seemed to edge Ferrari ahead of the midfield battle, and potentially ahead of their season rivals, McLaren.
Both drivers were able to make up plenty of ground from the back, although Charles Leclerc’s progress was undone in Russia. But, whilst one driver has been progressing through the field, the other has been able to run and compete for the podium, adding fuel to the fire for the team.
Starting 19th in Turkey due to Daniel Ricciardo taking penalty as well, it did not take Carlos Sainz long to begin cutting through the field. Initially, Sainz was patient in the first few corners – arguably the correct approach considering the conditions. But, by lap two, he was up to 16th as he made mincemeat of the ones in front – and also benefitting from the incident of Mick Schumacher.
Then, the brave moves came. Lap four and he had passed Fernando Alonso; fast forward to lap seven and Sainz had made turn 12 his favourite corner, moving up to 13th. On the ninth journey around the circuit, he was 11th. Bear in mind that by this point in this race, Ricciardo had also gone from the back row….to 16th. The progress was clear.
Leclerc, during his teammate’s gain, had himself in contention for a podium. Despite running a low-downforce setup, in the hope that the race was dry, Leclerc had the pace of the leaders in front. The Monegasque was able to maintain the gap in front to Verstappen, as the Dutchman was to Valtteri Bottas in the lead. In what has been a rare occurrence in recent time, Leclerc was keeping the likes of Verstappen on his toes.
Sainz continued to make his acquittance with turn 12, this time at the expense of Sebastian Vettel at the end of lap 14. However, he may have wished the move was slightly cleaner, but he was now into the points. And yet, the progress did not halt. Sainz was now embedded in the midfield battle so the chances of overtaking were slimmer. Yet, he was catching Yuki Tsunoda hand over fist and swiftly made his way past.
Leclerc was still matching the lap times of the two in front of him – a Mercedes and Red Bull. All three drivers were lapping within a tenth of each other multiple times, showing the true pace of Ferrari for the weekend.
At the time of passing AlphaTauri of Tsunoda, Sainz found himself 5.9s behind the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll as of lap 18. However, Sainz immediately started taking a second out of the Canadian as every lap passed. Yes, the race was in the wet and the dry could have produced different results, but both cars had speed to get into finish in the top five on the intermediates – which were now slicks.
Lap 35 and Sainz now had to halt his impressive drive to conserve. He had closed the gap from nearly six seconds, to just half a second. But, the intermediate tyres were bald and pitting was just around the corner for anyone who were not willing to risk going to the end on the same set of tyres. In the meantime, Leclerc remained just two seconds behind the Red Bull ahead, who had lost time to Bottas.
Sainz opted to pit on lap 37, dropping him to tenth, whilst Leclerc opted for the option to remain on track and risk it – a similar strategy to Russia which sadly did not go well for him.
The stops worked for the Spanish driver, as Stroll was now behind and Esteban Ocon was made light work of. Fastest lap after fastest lap was then set by Sainz, lapping over two seconds quicker then the leaders for a handful of laps. Again, a large factor of this was because of the graining on the intermediates, yet Sainz had worked his way through that stage and was flying.
Leclerc finally decided to box, and had lost his podium place that he had held for the entirety of the race, and had his work cut out with defending from Sergio Perez. The graining stage was affecting Leclerc more then it had for his teammate, but he had to find a way through it.
Perez would make his way past.
Back to the other Ferrari and Sainz trailed the McLaren of Lando Norris by 14 seconds and, unsurprisingly, he was eating his way into it.
They would finish in fourth and eighth – but the results really do not tell the whole story. Sainz had gobbed ten seconds out of the gap to Norris in just a few laps, whilst Leclerc would keep Lewis Hamilton behind to come home in fourth.
The wet conditions do tend to throw anomaly’s in the mix, but Ferrari had the pace to compete in both conditions – especially with Leclerc. It’s a big step, and very positive sign. We were seeing a Ferrari match the pace of the leaders and be in the mix, whilst the other was showing superiority coming through the field.
The upgrade to the power unit has definitely provided them with an added boost. But, the real question now – was their pace legitimate?
A dry race will decide that, and the likes of McLaren will become slightly worried if the performance from Turkey becomes a regular occurrence. Let’s not forget, the pace in the dry was their throughout the weekend. As Sainz knew about his penalty coming into the weekend, his focus in practice was solely on the race.
Leclerc however was filling spaces inside the top three for FP1 and FP2, before qualifying in fourth in the dry conditions. More impressively, and as mentioned previously, Leclerc had opted for a low-downforce strategy and yet was matching the fastest on track in the wet conditions.
This performance does go back to Russia. Before the rain came and Leclerc’s wrong decision dropped him out of the points, the Ferrari man was joining Verstappen by cutting through the field. Even so, Sainz was able to grab a podium finish for that race. But care needs to be taken, 2021 has shown the performances can massively vary, and has become more track dependant.
It is all looking rosy for Ferrari, rightfully so.
The Motorsport Formula 