P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has admitted that the team is relieved Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is starting down the order
Leclerc was puzzled with the lack of pace on his side of the Ferrari garage as he slumped to a fourth-row start, one-tenth behind team-mate Carlos Sainz in fourth place. Ferrari’s choice to overhaul its car concept to address its race pace concerns from last term has seen it struggle to get the Soft compound up to temperate over one lap. That trend continued this weekend as McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped Sainz, but the Italian marque’s long runs through practice appeared to be the strongest in the field. With both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez unsatisfied with Red Bull’s race simulations, Marko concedes he was concerned about the potential challenge from Leclerc. Red Bull’s worries for tomorrow have been subsided due to Suzuka being tough to overtake on and turbulence behind another car being worse in 2024. Helmut Marko mentioned, “Our updates worked straight away. The set-up worked and we conquered the entire front row. We must pay attention to McLaren and Ferrari. Leclerc starts relatively back, thank God, I might add he was the fastest in long runs. It will be a challenge between us, the McLarens and the Ferraris.” Sainz denied that Ferrari was surprised with the near five-tenth deficit to Verstappen, and pointed out that Red Bull leaves more in reserve throughout practice. Sainz added, “They are not better [than Red Bull] it just looks a bit like that. They always run really slow on Fridays so it looks like we are going to beat them on Sunday and then we are 20 seconds off. Maybe we are a bit closer but it’s not like we are going to find half a second tomorrow.”
