Ferrari is worried about AlphaTauri in Qatar, with their pace proving to be a cause for concern at the Losail Circuit.
The Italian team’s battle with McLaren has gone in their favour in the last few races. Ferrari now have the upper hand, but they have looked dodgy so far in Qatar.
Both the Woking outfit and Red Bull’s sister team have looked quicker during practice, with the latter being the fastest of the three. This was a pleasant surprise, but not one for the Prancing Horse.
Ferrari was left worried about AlphaTauri in Qatar, and they will be looking to beat them in addition to McLaren.
“AlphaTauri look very strong again this weekend,” Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc told RacingNews365.com.
“I think McLaren and AlphaTauri will be our main competitors – we are behind them for now. But I think we are quite confident that we can find the pace that we lack at the moment.”
The Monegasque has a bad day in practice. First he finished 13th, and then he was fined €200 for speeding in the pit lane. He explained what had happened, and said that it was an error he couldn’t control.
“Just a problem with my finger,” he stated. “I was checking the steering wheel and I saw a white line and I thought it was the end of the pits, which it wasn’t!
“It was another white line and then I reacted to it and braked, but it was too late!”
Work to do
Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz agreed with him, and said that practice showed Ferrari were lagging behind McLaren and AlphaTauri.
“At the moment, they look like the stronger package, both McLaren and AlphaTauri,” he said.
“Looking at the GPS data, we are actually pretty handy in the corners and we are just lacking a bit of speed on the straights.
“Maybe they’ve taken out a bit of downforce here and we have kept the max, so a few things to rediscover and to investigate tomorrow, but at the moment, they look like the quicker package,” he concluded.
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