Ferrari using Styrian GP as "test" to uncover tyre issue mystery - Carlos Sainz

Sainz, Ferrari, Styria — Photo: © LAT Images

Styrian Grand Prix

Ferrari using Styrian GP as "test" to uncover tyre issue mystery - Sainz

Ferrari struggled with front tyre-grip at last weekend's French GP

Ewan Gale

Friday 25 June 2021 20:15

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Carlos Sainz has revealed Ferrari is treating the Styrian Grand Prix as a "test opportunity" as it struggles to come to terms with its front-tyre wear issues.

The team endured a horrendous French Grand Prix, plummeting out of the points as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished 11th and 16th respectively on the back of the Monégasque claiming pole position in Monaco and Baku.

Following practice for this weekend's race, the duo finished behind Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi, although Sainz has revealed the team is not searching for all-out performance this weekend.

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"Definitely, we are approaching this as a bit of a test opportunity because spending here six days of running in two weeks gives us the opportunity to back-to-back a lot of data and we always have next week to correct the bad direction," explained Sainz.

"At the same time, we still want to optimise every weekend, we are still fighting for P3 in the championship and we said right from the beginning it would be a mid-to-long-term issue to solve, not all of a sudden we are being right with the front tyres."

Inspector Sainz "experimenting" with set-up

Given the severity of pace drop-off last weekend, Sainz added he was mixing up his set-up work in the early session on Friday to gather data for his engineers to work on.

"We did try to investigate the issues and we were basically experimenting quite a lot with set-up this morning and trying to find directions to follow," added the Spaniard.

"At the moment, there is all the analysis going on in the background but you can be sure we are definitely trying to find out what is going on with the front tyres."

"Our issue is so obvious that it is actually pretty easy to see on our tyres no matter what circuit we go to.

"It is a positive thing but realistically, it is also clearly a negative thing because we clearly have a weakness there that we are trying to address at every circuit."