An unpleasant surprise hit Ferrari at Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix. According to Frédéric Vasseur, there were too many mistakes. Were the two most decisive already committed in the previous days?
After their qualifying session on Saturday turned out to be weaker than expected, Charles Leclerc still held on to the fact that their car was specifically tuned for the race, and therefore made some sacrifices on a lap. The Monaco driver believed that they would close behind the two Red Bulls with quick overtakes and get the new podium places. However, their calculations were challenged by their own pace and McLaren’s speed.
Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur was not satisfied with the 4th and 5th places, as he strongly felt that there could have been more. For the first time this year, Ferrari did not secure a podium finish.
Leclerc felt that everything was still going according to plan on the medium tires and he lost the fight to Lando Norris (and Sergio Pérez) because he was too slow on the hard tires. According to Vasseur, they cannot make excuses.
“No one tested on this track, and that was the case with us as well. It is true that the asphalt problem may not have helped us, but that cannot be an excuse. We made a few mistakes in preparation and others did it better. It’s up to us, we have to do better next time”
he stated.
The team boss attributed the lower-than-expected result to three factors. One is their starting position. Charles Leclerc started from 6th, Carlos Sainz from 7th. “If you start from the back, it determines your race, because if you’re faster but don’t overtake immediately, you’ll break away and use up the tires more” Vasseur explained.
Frédéric Vasseur (Photo: Ferrari)
Bad starting positions were a problem on Saturday. “If there was one thing that didn’t go well, it was the timing” he noted.
He saw the other reason in the hard rubber problem. “We had everything under control on the medium tires, but we fell behind on the hard ones” said the Frenchman.
They didn’t foresee this because they didn’t use this type of tire either in Friday’s free practice or in the sprint to have two sets for Sunday. This was meant to be a trump card, but in the end it turned out to be more of a back card…
McLaren prepared differently for the sprint weekend. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris split the work on Friday: one of them tested the hard, the other tested on the medium rubber, so the team had an idea of what to expect from each type.
Vasseur cited bad luck as a third factor: Sainz pitted for fresh tires five laps before the virtual safety car phase, which was the worst timing from a tactical point of view. From then on, he didn’t even have a chance to attack in the heat, he had to defend himself instead.
The problem with the timing and the hard tires can probably be traced back to a basic problem: Ferrari simply fell over the horse and were too gentle with the tires. On one lap, warming up the soft compound also caused them a problem, and perhaps it is no coincidence that they had a problem with getting the hard compound to work after two safety car phases.
Ferrari really believed that they could gain an advantage by sparing the tires on the track, which was thought to be a tire stretcher, and gain a tactical advantage by keeping the hard tires, but ironically, on the cooler track and the less sticky asphalt, in the end both of their weapons did more harm to them.
“There were too many mistakes and we didn’t get the most out of the car. It’s not the improvements that matter, but whether you get the most out of the car. We didn’t do it this weekend”
Vasseur learned his lesson.
He added that small things can make the difference between Max Verstappen’s pursuers – this was also the case this time. “Max is sometimes faster, but every time there are six cars within half a tenth, within a tenth at most. The details decide whether you will be a hero or a nobody. In Australia we were half a tenth ahead of McLaren, now they were the fastest” he stated.
