Ferrari ‘very close’ after a strong qualifying session

During the single practice session ahead of the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, it seemed that the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. had something extra for the field this week.

Friday’s qualifying session for the Grand Prix confirmed that.

Leclerc is set to start alongside Max Verstappen in second, while Sainz will be right behind him in third. Leclerc was just 0.048 seconds behind Verstappen for pole, with Sainz only 0.190 seconds behind the pole-sitter.

It was a welcome change for the team after some qualifying frustrations in recent weeks.

“It feels good to finally have a clean qualifying again and to be back on the front row,” said Leclerc in the team’s post-qualifying report. “The feeling from the car has been a bit better in the last three races and then in Q1 and Q2, it was all about building up to that lap in Q3 and I managed to put everything into that last lap and got very close to Max.”

“We hadn’t expected to be that close to the Red Bull so it’s a good step forward and I would like to thank everyone back at the factory for all the work they have done in the last few weeks in order to bring an update package at Spielberg, earlier than planned,” added Leclerc. “It’s really impressive and helped us to perform well today.”

“Overall it was a positive day for me and the team as we will start second and third for the GP on Sunday,” stated Sainz. “The car felt good all day and I was fast from the start which is always a good sign. We don’t have many indications on our race pace compared to our rivals but we look forward to tomorrow’s and Saturday’s races.”

Like many teams, Ferrari came to Red Bull Ring with a host of upgrades to the SF-23. Early indications are those have put the team on solid footing heading into Saturday and the F1 Sprint.

“In the Montreal race we made a big step forward and here we want to confirm it,” said Team Principal Frederic Vasseur. “Of course, the Sprint weekend is much tighter since there is only one free practice session and we also had some updates to check on track: both Charles and Carlos benefited from it and for this I want to thank everyone who worked day and night in Maranello to allow us to assemble the new components as early as this weekend.”

Can Ferrari get even closer to Verstappen ... perhaps taking the team’s first wint of the season, and their first win since last year’s Austrian Grand Prix? Maybe, just maybe, that is in the cards.

“Tomorrow a special day awaits us, with qualifying and a Sprint race that will allow us to work also in view of Sunday’s Grand Prix,” concluded Vasseur. “We have to stay focused, the weekend is still long but we started it in the right way.”