Sainz: Ferrari’s Paul Ricard tyre issues could resurface at F1’s British GP

Sainz dropped from fifth on the grid at the Circuit Paul Ricard last month to finish 11th, struggling with front tyre degradation.

Ferrari bounced back last time out in the Red Bull Ring, scoring points with both cars in the two Austria rounds.

Sainz suspects Ferrari’s upturn in form during the races in Austria was due to it putting stress on the rear tyres, rather than the fronts - which won’t be the case at Silverstone.

“I think the competitiveness we saw in Austria is mainly because of the characteristics of the track, so to put it simple for you guys Silverstone and Paul Ricard is a front-limited track, which means you degrade a lot the front tyres and we’re expecting to be suffering a bit in the race as we degrade the front tyres,” Sainz said.

“Austria you degrade the rear tyres, rear limited, and that’s why we think we were relatively competitive in the race as we ae actually better with the rear tyres. So no I don’t think it will help us having a double race, if anything it will make things more challenging.”

Sainz says it will be important Ferrari is able to “hit the ground running”.

“Yeah it is a front limited circuit normally, if it doesn’t get too warm, the front tyres really degrade and have a lot of wear, so we are aware of that, and we know this could be a big limitation for us this weekend so that’s why I was talking about strategy, talking about tyres, talking about these things,” Sainz explained.

“We know our limitations, we know we can struggle on these sort of circuits so we need to be on top of it to hit the ground running.”

Teammate Charles Leclerc is hopeful the new sprint qualifying format will play into Ferrari’s hands as he believes it is one of the best teams at getting its car into the window from the first practice session.

“It’s been quite different,” Leclerc added. “First of all we went through the program for the weekend that is very different to what we’re normally used to, and FP1 will be crucial. I think it will be pretty busy but very, very important to try and understand the car, try to do the last set-up work before qualifying and then that’s it - you get to stay with that car for the rest of the weekend.

“So it’s very important how we prepare for the weekend. I think it’s one of our strengths though, we are very good at preparing the car and being there, normally we don’t change the car much from there, so hopefully we can take advantage of that and have a good weekend.”