Back on the podium

Scuderia Ferrari HP did not have long to wait to get back on the podium after not doing so a fortnight ago in China, thanks to a third place finish in the Miami Grand Prix for Charles Leclerc. With both cars on the podium in Australia, it means the teams has six podium finishes from the six races so far. Today, as was the case in Shanghai, it brought home the second highest number of points over the two races this weekend, thus consolidating its second place in the championship.

The race. Charles’ third podium of the season was partly down to a well executed strategy that saw him pit on lap 19, undercutting Oscar Piastri who had overtaken him on lap 5. The Monegasque might even have finished where he started in second place behind Max Verstappen, but for the Safety Car that came out following the collision between Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant on lap 28. Lando Norris was the big winner of this incident, as he had not yet pitted and thus found himself in the lead, going on to take his maiden Formula 1 win. Carlos was unfortunately unable to get any benefit from the Safety Car as he had pitted one lap earlier, rejoining fifth behind Piastri. The Spaniard also had some bad luck at the start. He got off the line really well but was forced to run wide to make room for Sergio Perez who completely missed his braking point at the first corner. When the race resumed, Carlos and Piastri enjoyed a spectacular duel, the Spaniard getting past on lap 40 at turn 17 to take fourth place. There were no more surprises in the final third of the race and so Scuderia Ferrari HP leaves Miami with 38 points in the bag (27 from today and 11 from yesterday’s Sprint Race). It now has 189 points, 48 off the championship leader.

Start of the European season. The World Championship is back in action in a fortnight’s time with the first European round of the season, the Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna at Imola, back on the calendar after it had been cancelled last year because of devastating floods in the area over the race week.

Charles Leclerc #16

A tough race today. The first lap was a close call and thankfully we got away without any damage there. We held second place, focusing on tyre management. We stopped rather early, which unfortunately cost us after a Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car were deployed, giving others the opportunity to pit. We struggled on older tyres, and had to fight to keep the pace. 

We have our upgrades coming shortly, so hopefully we can join the fight for victories soon.

Congratulations to Lando (Norris) for his first victory, I hope he enjoys it fully.

Carlos Sainz #55

Congratulations to Lando, I'm truly happy for him! He deserved a win for a long time and today was his day.

Looking at my race I would say the opposite, it wasn’t my day. The start was very good but I went from P2 at turn 1 to P4 after having to avoid Perez. From there I was in a DRS train for some laps and decided to open the gap, take care of the tyres and extend my first stint to try something different. Unfortunately, the Safety Car came out the lap after I pitted and we lost a chance to lead the race. It is what it is.

However, I'm quite happy with my race because the pace was very strong and at the end of the day we scored good points for the team. On to the next one.

Fred Vasseur Team Principal Scuderia Ferrari HP

First of all I want to congratulate Lando and McLaren because it’s a first win for a driver who is very popular in the paddock and we are happy for him. It was also a good result for Formula 1 as a whole. From our side we had a strong race and we were able to stay with Max (Verstappen) all race long. We were a bit unlucky with the Safety Car with Carlos but it is what it is and we have to stick with the positives, especially the fact that the pace was there all weekend.

Charles had a pretty straightforward race. However, for Carlos the start was not ideal because of Perez’s mistake at turn 1. Today track position was very important, as it was very difficult to overtake and he lost two places through the first two corners. However he had very good pace and was able to come back at the end.

The next Grand Prix is in Imola, which has been the scene of some really exciting racing in recent years. Before then everyone in Maranello will be working hard to ensure we get a better result than we did today.