MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: How Ferrari banished their qualifying blues with strong Montreal recovery
Ferrari’s Canadian Grand Prix weekend was a rollercoaster. Nearly as fast as Red Bull in the dry of Friday practice, struggling in wet qualifying, fast again in the dry of race day but initially stuck in the midfield.
Ultimately it was a solid recovery to fourth and fifth for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz from 10th and 11th on the grid, albeit a long way behind Max Verstappen as he delivered Red Bull’s 100th Grand Prix victory and his own 41st.
After the disappointing race pace of the updated car in Barcelona, Ferrari always knew it would be much faster around Montreal. Long, fast corners are the Ferrari’s weakness and there are none of those here. Straight-line speed is one of its best strengths and that’s heavily-rewarded around Montreal.
Furthermore, the tyre challenge in Canada was keeping the fronts up to temperature, so the Ferrari’s hard usage of the fronts (usually a disadvantage on race day) actually worked in its favour on a cool Montreal afternoon.
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