“This development is carrying on organic growth it’s just more chocolaty with a bit more flavor,” said Ferrari’s senior performance engineer Jock Clear talking about the Imola upgrades before the race weekend. Unfortunately for Maranello, the ‘flavor’ that was apparent in all the practice sessions went bland during the qualifying on Saturday. Max Verstappen took the pole and Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were left with a bad taste in their mouths.

Fred Vasseur and Co. revised the floor in its entirety with the internal drifts of the Venturi entrances. The step was expected to be around 15 overall load-efficiency points, which would mean 3-tenths per lap, with an even more ambitious target in terms of race pace. Despite the hype, the reality is that Max remains the only pole sitter of the 2024 campaign and the Ferraris were left trailing behind McLarens.

This hasn’t sat well with Carlos. He said the gain with the new package is small and also added that the media hyped it more than what the upgrade brings. Rationalizing why the upgrade didn’t translate, he stated that this upgrade doesn’t suit this track. To add to that, Leclerc ended up frustrated as well.

Charles Leclerc wasn’t too happy about his qualifying pace either

With his performance in Free Practice sessions, it seemed as though the master qualifier Leclerc was back in his element. However, the sudden spike in others’ pace in the Q3 session confused and frustrated him. Though it is conjectured that Verstappen got a very convenient slipstream from Nico Hulkenberg, Leclerc couldn’t beat McLaren either.

When Leclerc’s new race engineer Bryan told him that it was P4 for him, the Monegasque driver was infuriated. Expressing his honest feelings, he said, “F*** that…f*** that…. They all gained more than I thought in Q3.” 

The new upgrades weren’t translated for either of the drivers and it was evident that neither were pleased with the qualifying result.

Do you think the dynamics will change in the race tomorrow? Can someone other than Max take the win in the seventh round of the F1 world championship?