F1 News

Horner sees a competitive Ferrari ahead of qualifying

Horner on competition: 'Ferrari looks to be competitive in Canada'

17 June 2023 at 19:17
Last update 17 June 2023 at 19:34
  • Cas van de Kleut

The third free practice is over, and Max Verstappen seems to have the best papers in first place. Yet Ferrari in particular seems to be closer than in the previous few races, and Christian Horner sees that too.

It was a chaotic session. The rain made the track unpredictable. Carlos Sainz crashed his Ferrari, and several good times were set by Magnussen and Tsunoda, among others. Towards the end of the session, Verstappen set one improvement after another, but Leclerc also improved, placing his Ferrari within less than three-tenths of a second of the Dutchman's RB19.

'Ferrari looks competitive'

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also sees the other top teams doing well, telling Sky Sports: "I think Ferrari, I think their car here looks competitive. I think Aston look like they’re there or there about in that session, Mercedes just look like they struggled to be generating tyre temperature so that seems to be moving from circuit to circuit.."

Still, the team boss of Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez is not worried about their chances: "I think just give Checo the data and he’ll be looking at that now with his engineer in the build-up to quali. What Max seems to be exceptional at, a bit like Fernando (Alonso), is just generating tyre temp really quickly, an aggressive style and suddenly the car comes into a window where it just works."