Team Talk - Sunday in Shanghai

Ferrari

Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP) Ferrari on the grid. 21.04.2024. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 5, Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai, China, Race Day. - www.xpbimages.com, EMail: requests@xpbimages.com © Copyright: Coates / XPB Images
Charles Leclerc
"We're not completely satisfied with our result as a team today. We have two things to focus on leaving Shanghai, one is our qualifying trim and the other our pace on the Hards, which was our main challenge today. Our strategy and performance were strong until the Safety Car, but after that we were all on the same strategy and it was a bit more difficult for us to get back to speed on the Hard tyres.

"What will be essential is the upcoming upgrades, as they will define the direction we will take for the next part of the season."

Carlos Sainz
"A tough race on a challenging track for us this weekend. The first few corners were far from ideal and with the traffic we decided to pit early to switch to the Hard tyres. Some laps later, under the Safety Car, we stayed out on that tyre and went to the end to finish fifth.

"In any case, overall we struggled more than expected and the result today is not what we wanted. We will review everything before going to Miami, where I'm confident we can return to the form we showed in the previous weekends."

Frederic Vasseur, team principal
"I'm not sure if we could have expected more in terms of finishing higher up the order today given our grid positions. However, I was expecting more in terms of pace than we demonstrated in the race. We now need to understand why that was, especially on the Hards and improve in time for Miami both in qualifying and the race because it's all very close currently with hundredths of a second making a big difference.

"We had put both drivers on a two-stop strategy and Charles did a good job of lengthening his stint on the Mediums, but when the Virtual Safety Car was called, we went for a one stop, with the hope of being able to fight for a podium finish.

"Unfortunately, Carlos had stopped just before the Safety Car and so he too had to switch to a single stop. This naturally meant he had to be a bit conservative in the final part of the race, but he still brought home the best result that was possible today."