Formula 1 | Ferrari, free practice in Barcelona as a test

Formula 1 GP Spain Ferrari – As expected, Scuderia Ferrari faced a particularly intense Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, home of the Spanish Grand Prix scheduled for Sunday at 15pm CET. In fact, some aerodynamic updates made their debut on the SF-23 and were verified on the Catalan track, a task that was added to the usual fine-tuning work that characterizes the first day of activity on the track. The team worked to prepare for qualifying but concentrated above all on race pace, running both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz with plenty of fuel on board and different rubber compounds.

FP1. In the first session of the day, Charles and Carlos made themselves available to the team who needed to carry out comparisons between the two aerodynamic configurations of the car. Carlos tested the upgrade package, while Charles drove the car in normal configuration. Both SF-23s initially took to the track with the prototype C1 compound tires brought by Pirelli in view of their use starting from the Silverstone race and after about ten laps both Charles and Carlos switched to the Medium compound. In the central phase of the session, the two SF-23s were fitted with Soft tires with which both pilots achieved the best times of 1'15”694 and 1'15”726 respectively. In the last 15 minutes fuel was finally loaded onto the two cars to test in race configuration. Leclerc completed 28 laps, one more than Sainz.

FP2. Before the session scheduled for 17pm local time, the mechanics also equipped Charles' car with the latest aerodynamic updates, putting both drivers on equal terms. Unlike other teams, the Scuderia began the program with the qualifying simulation using two sets of Soft tires with the second of which Leclerc achieved a 1'14"246, seventh fastest, while Sainz stopped the clocks at 1'14 ”274, eighth. At that point, with more than half a session available, the team with both single-seaters resumed working on a race basis, with more fuel on board, both with the Proto tires and with the Soft tyres. In total Charles and Carlos completed 32 laps each. The cars will take to the track tomorrow at 12.30 CET for the last free practice session in preparation for the 16pm qualifying.