The 2023 Singapore Grand Prix saw Carlos Sainz take the second GP win of his career. With this, the Ferrari driver managed to break the sheer dominance of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. However, his teammate Charles Leclerc struggled in Singapore, significantly due to an engine problem, and in the end, he narrowly escaped to save his team from having a bittersweet ending, as per Racingnews365.
The Scuderia had a great pace right from the Monza race. As they picked up a pole position at the Italian Grand Prix, they did the same in the Singapore GP. Nevertheless, the Marina Bay Circuit race was a better experience since they were able to use their pole position to claim a win.
Congrats to the team and Carlos for the amazing victory. Did my part in the first stint and then got unlucky with the safety car and lost too many positions. So proud of the steps forward done by the team in the last few weekends, let’s keep pushing ❤️ pic.twitter.com/EOhtljxQ6e
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) September 17, 2023
At a time when Sainz had two back-to-back pole positions and a win in 2023, his teammate Leclerc barely had a good outing, let alone slipped his positive place. Nonetheless, he is content that he could take his car home on Sunday.
Leclerc faced engine issues that could have jeopardized his race
While Sainz went on to secure his win from the pole, it was not the same story for Charles Leclerc. On one side the Monegasque saw his teammate break Red Bull’s mighty dominance, and on the other hand, he had to see his car having a technical problem.
Talking about this he said to Racingnews365, “It was all about bringing the car to the end, the car was overheating, everywhere. So the pace was not representative. It was all about bringing the car home, but before that, the pace was good. It was good race management from the team.”
Feelin’ fine today, how about you? 😎 pic.twitter.com/Qj3U941Kdm
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) September 18, 2023
As the Monegasque driver saw reliability issues with his SF-23, he almost got caught by Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was approaching very rapidly and covered up about 17 seconds in about four laps.
Amid struggles, Ferrari improved significantly
The start of the 2023 season hasn’t been an absolute best for Scuderia Ferrari. Despite this, the Italian team made significant progress as the season progressed. The Monza and the Singapore race weekend has been great proof of that.
Especially in terms of speed, the Prancing Horse has made commendable upgrades. They have one of the most superior straight-line speeds in F1 right now along with Red Bull.
However, they need to work on their tire degradation, which has been a cause of concern for the Maranello-based team. All in all, the Italian team is now in contention for a P2 clash with Mercedes in the Constructors’ championship.
