In the middle of this topic's drama, I just realized I forgot to post the post-qualifying interviews like I normally do. Sorry about that.
Leclerc
I don’t know why the free practice session went so much better than expected, whereas in qualifying, we were in line with our predictions. So, we’re back to reality.
After free practice, we were hopeful we could do better, but we didn’t manage it. If we look at free practice, we think we can fight for the win; if we look at qualifying, we can’t. For now, the most representative session is qualifying, so we’re not in the best position, but you never know. Every time, it’s different when the race comes around.
Sainz
I never try to read too much into FP1, because you never know the fuel loads and engine modes others are running. The good news is [in FP1] the car felt better in terms of balance than expected, and the timesheets reflected that.
But going into qualifying, we were still worried that our rivals could be quick here, and that’s what we saw. I don’t think we maximized our package. Even though the lap was clean, there was a lot of understeer in the car, and we basically couldn't turn for the whole lap.
It was also a tough lap because it was my only chance to set a time, so I couldn’t take too many risks with track limits. Since I missed the previous lap, I had to make sure I got one in. I think we have a lot of potential to improve the car tomorrow, especially on the soft tire.
Vasseur
We had a much better car in free practice this afternoon, but we suffered a lot of understeer in qualifying, which cost us a lot of time. If we want to be positive, we can say that many points will be awarded on Sunday. We need to react and be ready for tomorrow afternoon’s qualifying and have a good car on Sunday. But it’s true we were in much better condition during free practice.
When the grip improves, the understeer issue gets worse. I think there was a huge difference in grip between the afternoon and the evening.
The Sprint will be in the afternoon, so we should be less affected than in qualifying. Then, in qualifying, we can adjust the setup. The race? Nobody has done a race simulation, so we can’t predict whether there will be tire graining or not.
Additionally, dropping this comparison between Ferrari and the McLarens here.
I'm pretty sure every person involved in this discussion agrees Sainz did better, so I don't even understand what you guys are debating.
