Laurent Mekis: We have to compromise

Ferrari sports director Laurent Mekis is willing to admit that Scuderia’s bet on more downforce could backfire on the Italian team in the race, but believes such an approach is still preferable. Qualifying in Le Castellet was won by Charles Leclerc, and how the events will develop further we will find out on Sunday.

Q: Looks like you’ve been able to steal the initiative from Red Bull Racing lately and Ferrari are starting from pole again – but what can you do against their high speed on the straights? Do you think this will cause you problems in tomorrow’s race?
Laurent Mekis: We’re going to have a hard time. We understand that the weekend does not end on Saturday, especially as we are usually quite quick in qualifying. But today the situation was somewhat ambiguous, as we lacked pace in the third practice and to win pole position, the whole team had to work together and enlist the help of Carlos Sainz.

At the same time, we remember that on this track there is a very large load on the front tire, which is subject to serious degradation here, and we have had similar problems in the past. In general we are waiting for a difficult race tomorrow. In addition, Charles will only have to fight with two Red Bull cars, so I foresee that the fight will be sharp and interesting.

Q: Can you explain what logic Ferrari followed when setting up the car? As far as we know, Red Bull relied on low downforce, but you preferred a higher level of downforce. How can this help you tomorrow?
Laurent Mekis: This trend can be followed from the start of the season: compared to rivals, we have set the car for stronger pressure. Each team starts from the characteristics of their car and tries to achieve optimal settings – we believe this approach is preferable for us.

Obviously, compromises have to be made, and at these settings the rubber degradation seems to be slightly higher, so we could be at a disadvantage. But in different races this season, events have been different: sometimes everything went in our favour, sometimes it was the other way around. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Question Yes, in tomorrow’s race it will become clear, but some experts already think you made a mistake by putting the car on such a high level of downforce. Or do you think you have managed to find the right balance?
Laurent Mekis: That’s why Formula 1 is interesting, because we won’t get the answer to this question until tomorrow evening. If we win the French Grand Prix, everyone will immediately say that we had the best tactics, the best car, the best racers and that our team worked most effectively. Usually this is the case, but taken seriously such a reaction is not surprising.

We understand that this approach requires the right tactics and we must carefully consider our actions so as not to be attacked during the race. It will become clear on Sunday to what extent that will work.

Q: How concerned are you about car reliability issues? In Austria, Carlos Sainz retired and was penalized this weekend for replacing the power plant. Is there any fear that problems could arise with Charles Leclerc’s car?
Laurent Mekis: On a subconscious level you are of course always ready for these kinds of problems. If they happen when your drivers lead the Grand Prix, you’ll remember this for a long time to come. We’ve already missed a few wins this year due to equipment failure, but it takes time to completely eliminate such issues.

We understand that they cannot be tackled overnight, so now all team members are working together to find the best solution. I am willing to admit that we have some turmoil, but I hope that with each race our technique will become more and more reliable.

Q: This weekend the Ferraris got a new underbody and it seems that it has improved the efficiency of the chassis. But from the outside, your new products somehow seem too complicated…
Laurent Mekis: You can see that all the teams are making great efforts to modernize their cars, almost all of them have brought some new items, but this is required by the situation in the championship this year, because the rivalry is very sharp.

Each race weekend you have to face tough challenges again and again, trying to find a way to approach new components, to make them work as efficiently as possible, although sometimes this only happens after two or three races. Here in France and next weekend in Hungary we will see how successful we are.