Ferrari: "It’s important that we’re ahead of McLaren"

• F1

Ferrari sports director Laurent Mekies says that the result achieved in the qualifications is very important because both drivers of the Italian team finished ahead of McLaren, and that is important for the goal they want to achieve.

Ferrari announced before the weekend in Brazil that their biggest competitor in the fight for third place - McLaren - should have a smaller advantage over them. However, the drivers of the Maranello team finished ahead of both drivers of the Woking team in the qualifiers.

Carlos Sainz finished in 6th place and Charles Leclerc in 7th place. Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo placed 8th and 9th, respectively. This result gives Ferrari a chance to stay ahead of McLaren in the sprint race.

Goal

Mekies referred to the qualifiers, which he says were not bad because they would help them achieve their goal, and it was important for them to finish ahead of both McLaren.

"The qualifications were not bad in terms of helping us achieve our set goal in this final part of the season, which is to finish third in the constructors' championship." "Today, it was important that we managed to bring both of our cars ahead of our closest rivals, ”explains Mekies.

“It would be nice to be ahead of Gasly, but we knew they would be very competitive on this track like it was in Mexico. He is always very close to the top two teams, and it takes very little to lose or win a few places, "he added.

The sports director of the team from Maranello adds that they had problems with the lack of a fresh set of the softest tires for Charles Leclerc, but praised the whole team for the hard work in the past two days. "Charles and I paid the price for not having two sets of new software for Q3 while everyone else had, because he had to use an extra set in Q1, and details like this can make a difference when the backlog is very small," he continued.

"Finally, I would like to congratulate the entire team on their work in the past two days. It was not easy to slow down the work of setting up and preparing, which usually takes two days in just 14 hours, but everyone gave their part in a well-organized and determined way.

That meant that the day went smoothly, just like a normal day, "Mekies concluded. Now McLaren will have a much more difficult task