Carlos Sainz thinks that Ferrari’s weakness has been revealed in Barcelona

Ferrari once again struggled in Barcelona. The Italian team only has one car in the points, thanks to local driver Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, had a much more difficult weekend. In qualifying, the Monegasque driver didn’t make it past Q1 and positioned himself in 19th place. He ultimately managed to secure eleventh position.

A complicated Sunday

For the Spanish driver, Saturday had gone well, with a great second place finish that meant starting on the front row alongside Max Verstappen. The race was more challenging for the homegrown talent. After getting level with the Dutchman at the first corner, Carlos Sainz ultimately did not see the Red Bull again.

“We had a good Saturday. But Sunday didn’t go well. This shows that the qualifying round was really good. We came back to where the car should have been,” said Carlos Sainz.

The cause of this complicated race, with a slower pace than expected, is the tires. Since the beginning of the year, Ferrari seems to be struggling with the degradation of its tires. And this was once again confirmed in Spain.

To be honest, I spent the entire race managing my tires. We know we have issues with that. Barcelona is a track where the degradation is very high. We just couldn’t push, Carlos Sainz stated after finishing fifth.

The revealed weaknesses

The two Scuderia drivers did not have the opportunity to push their efforts too much to make a comeback and hope for a good position. Since the beginning of the season, the Ferraris have been suffering from tire degradation, greatly limiting them in their race and strategy. The drivers have to hold back to reach the planned pit stop.

“We know that it is a weakness of our car. Upon arriving at a highly degraded circuit, we knew that we would have to manage our tires throughout the weekend. We simply tried to reach the target lap before stopping, even if we had to shorten some stints,” continued Carlos Sainz.

For the Spanish, the Ferrari is not suited for a track like the one in Barcelona. This partially explains the underperformance of the Scuderia in Spain. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were unable to showcase their full potential on the Catalan circuit.

An unsuitable circuit

The Spanish believes that the Circuit de Barcelona may have been the least suited to the Ferrari. With high-speed corners and significant degradation, the Scuderia’s car struggles in these areas.

Ferrari had made improvements to their car. But the Scuderia won’t be able to assess them in this Spanish round. According to Carlos Sainz, it’s difficult to judge these improvements based on this weekend.

I know that the factory has made a great effort to bring about improvements. But we probably brought them to our worst track. The characteristics of the track do not suit us at all. We probably haven’t seen the best of the improvements yet.