Ferrari still lacking pace despite upgrades at F1 Austrian GP

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc aren’t expecting their new Ferrari car floor to make a big impact on their competitiveness after a low-key Friday at Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Ferrari brought a fully revamped floor to the Red Bull Ring, with changes to the body, edges and floor wing, as well as a reprofiled diffuser to go with it.

The team hopes the new design gives its floor additional aerodynamic load throughout the various cornering speeds, and thus be a net performance boost in all conditions.

And while Leclerc in particular looked strong over long runs, that gain in performance seems negligible across one lap, with the Monegasque six tenths off FP2 leader Lando Norris, shipping most of the deficit to the McLaren due to lower cornering speeds through the Red Bull Ring’s fast Turn 6 and Turn 7 left-handers. Hamilton was another three tenths in arrears, being stronger than Leclerc in traction zones out of slower corners but losing time elsewhere.

Neither Leclerc nor Hamilton enjoyed a regular day of running, with Leclerc sitting out FP1 for rookie runner Dino Beganovic and Hamilton ​restricted on long runs due to his early gearbox issues.

But while Leclerc dismissed that lack of running as a factor, he did have an uncomfortable time in FP2 marked by a few off-track excursions.

“FP1 didn’t really compromise FP2. I felt kind of at ease on the track straight away, but not really at ease with the way the car feels,” Leclerc reported. “There’s quite a bit of work to be done for tomorrow. It doesn’t feel like the performance is quite there yet, but hopefully we’ll make a step forward.

“Long runs seem to be more positive. We were very similar to the fastest guys. But the problem is that everything is so close that as soon as you start P6 or P7, then in the race it’s extremely difficult to come back where you should be. In qualifying, there’s a lot of work to be done.”

Leclerc said the new floor delivered the expected aero numbers but said it was hard to feel the difference. “It’s very difficult for me to make any comments,” he shrugged.

“People expect that as a driver you just go with a new part and boom, it’s like straight away so much faster. But we are still speaking about very fine gains. And if you didn’t do FP1 and if you don’t have a reference, it’s very difficult to feel. But numbers wise, it does what it’s expected to do, and I’m happy with that.”

Hamilton paid tribute to his team for delivering the new floor and solving his gearbox issues ahead of FP2, but also felt Friday’s running was “not spectacular” for the Prancing Horse.

“We had a problem in the morning with the gearbox, which was obviously difficult and frustrating for everyone in the garage, because the boys did a great job, kept topping it up,” the seven-time world champion said.

“But you go out and you can only do one lap, so we didn’t get the long runs. But I think we recovered okay with it. They did a great job changing the gearbox and getting us ready for P2.

“But Charles was six tenths off, and I was close to a second off, so not ideal. We’ll make some changes and try to get a little bit closer, but we won’t be at the front.

“There was a huge amount of work going on to bring the floor, but as you see, it’s not necessarily going to change our competitiveness. The car actually doesn’t feel bad. It’s just we’re a huge chunk off, pace wise.”