Grey skies and temperatures hovering around the 20 degree mark met Scuderia Ferrari and its drivers as they arrived at Silverstone, which hosts the British Grand Prix this weekend. As from this race, the FIA and Formula 1, in consultation with the teams, has instigated a new format for Thursdays, which sees the drivers tackling media duties and Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz faced questions about their expectations for this, the tenth round of the season.
Favourite track. “If we leave out street circuits, Silverstone is my favourite track,” began Charles. “And I can’t wait to drive the F1-75 through some of the best corners on the calendar. So far, we have been competitive at every track and I think that here too we should be on the pace. It’s the start of a very important month for us, with four races coming up. It will be vital for us to bring home good results to make up ground on those ahead of us in the classification. I think all we need is to have a clean weekend, because we know that our car-team-driver package is very competitive.”
Confidence gained. Carlos began his meeting with the journalists by looking back at his race in Canada. “Even putting aside the final finishing result, another positive for me in Montreal was the confidence I felt in the car, which was good over the whole Grand Prix and it meant I could drive in the way I like,” said the Spaniard. “Now we have to maintain that situation here at Silverstone and start to score significant results in all four races before the summer break.” Sainz also elaborated on how he plans to deal with them. “Together with the team, we will tackle the races one at a time, concentrating on the details, as they are what can make the difference. The potential is there to fight for the wins and I believe that if we work well, the results will come. At that point, we can start looking at the standings, because anything can happen.”
Laurent working remotely. Laurent Mekies is not at Silverstone this weekend. The team’s Racing Director has tested positive for Covid-19, but he is well enough to be fully operational as usual, although working with the team remotely.