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Carlos Sainz believes that the Hungaroring’s reputation as a “Monaco without walls” is no longer valid because of the speed of the current cars and as such he’s not expecting a Monaco-like performance from his Ferrari this weekend.
The low-speed performance of the Ferraris caused something of a sensation at Monaco where Charles Leclerc set pole and Sainz’s own pole bid was thwarted by Leclerc’s crash, before he went on to finish second to Max Verstappen in the race.
“When I first came here in 2015 with the narrower cars and the narrower tyres it felt like a slow-speed track,” Sainz related. “But from in the car it doesn’t feel like at all now.
“There are a few hairpins here and there but a lot of the track is now fifth gear. We are lapping seven seconds faster here than in 2015 and I think that’s not something that’s generally appreciated.
“So I’m not expecting it to be like Monaco for us, it’s a bit too fast. But I think we’ll be in better shape than Silverstone.”
Leclerc believes the car’s main aerodynamic weakness is in the medium corners, “for a variety of reasons”.
On a more positive note, Sainz feels the forecast for very hot conditions through the weekend is something that could work in Ferrari’s favour.
“We always have tyres on the back of our mind,” he says, “and when it’s cold it tends to bring the balance of the car forward and that’s when we sometimes struggle. But generally on the rear-limited situations we are in better shape and so hopefully that should work in our favour this weekend.”
Although the Ferrari has set two poles this season (Leclerc added Baku to his Monaco achievement), it is on average only the fourth-fastest qualifying car this year in the 10 races to date (see below).
% OF THEORETICAL POLE AFTER 10 RACES
1. Red Bull 100.129
2. Mercedes 100.208
3. McLaren 100.675
4. Ferrari 100.742
5. AlphaTauri 100.921
6. Alpine 101.208
7. Aston Martin 101.377
8. Williams 101.705
9. Alfa Romeo 101.779
10. Haas 103.185
