F1 | Leclerc and Vettel focused on the Russian GP: “Focus on the goal”

Late summer weather welcomed the riders and teams to Sochi, with temperatures still high during the day that become decidedly cooler as the sun goes down. Charles Leclerc e Sebastian Vettel they reconnoitered the route by bicycle before meeting with their engineers to prepare for the race weekend.

With the media. In the afternoon, as usual, the drivers met the journalists in the usual FIA press conference. The first questions were still about the Mugello weekend, the 1000th Scuderia Ferrari GP in Formula 1: “We didn't get the result we wanted – admitted Charles – but it was still great to be able to ride on our home track, which would be very nice if it could remain on the World Championship calendar in the future. We were also very pleased to have fans back in the stands; I know that there will be even more here and we hope to make them have fun even if unfortunately this has historically not been a track that is too friendly to our cars. As always, however, we are leaving nothing to chance and are pushing as much as possible. Qualifying here will be even more important than at Mugello and since today's briefings we have started to prepare it as best we can. We know that the fight in the group will be very close as always: our objective remains a good placement in the points." said the Monegasque.

Sensations. Sebastian Vettel said he didn't want to set any particular expectations for the weekend: “I think it's important to try to get the right sensations from the car and that's what I will focus on. As far as I'm concerned, together with my engineers I have to find the most correct settings to extract the maximum potential from the SF1000". This weekend the German is preparing to compete in the 250th GP of his career: “As many people know, I'm not too tied to numbers, the important thing is to have a good race, starting from qualifying. It would be important for me not to start in the middle of the group, because I am convinced that if I were a little further forward it would be easier to have less difficult races."

Plan. Tomorrow we start with the two free practice sessions: the cars will take to the track at 11am and 15pm local time (10am and 14pm CET), while the last 60 minutes in preparation for qualifying will take place on Saturday at 12pm (11am CET). Qualifying will be at 15pm (14pm CET); the race on Sunday at 14.10pm (13.10pm CET).