From over eight tenths on Friday to just two and a half tenths today, Ferrari more than halved the gap to the top in a single day, a somewhat surprising improvement. According to Frédéric Vasseur, the progress primarily stems from Ferrari’s strategy in preparing the tires for the flying lap. For the French team principal, this is a result that does the squad a lot of good.
The turnaround from Friday’s deficit to Saturday’s improved performance came in just twenty-four hours. Reopening parc fermé after the Sprint Race benefited Ferrari, which looked much more competitive compared to the first qualifying session of the weekend, when it had struggled behind several mid-field teams.
The disappointment was evident even among the drivers. Charles Leclerc, in particular, admitted he had not expected Ferrari to make such a significant improvement. Yet the Scuderia managed to recover decisively overnight. According to Fred Vasseur, this progress is the result of several factors, starting with the management and preparation of the tires.
Throughout this season, the importance of managing the out-lap in qualifying has been clear. Some teams even slow their rivals deliberately in the pit lane, aware of how vulnerable they can be during this delicate phase with a narrow operational window. Fred Vasseur confirmed this factor played a role again in Austin.
It’s no coincidence that Ferrari was among the first to hit the track for the final Q3 run, choosing a timing different from their rivals, who waited longer. This was a calculated decision: Ferrari opted to take the necessary time to prepare the tires perfectly, also using insights gathered during the Sprint Race.
The team deliberately sacrificed the final minutes of track evolution to execute a strategy aimed at maximizing performance, focusing on elements that had caused difficulties throughout the season. “Preparation [made the difference]. Sometimes it’s better to do the out-lap alone without focusing too much on track evolution. We had a good session because of this; every lap was well-prepared, and in the end, we reaped the rewards,” Fred Vasseur explained.
“Today we extracted much more from the tires during the preparation lap. The car’s potential is certainly there, but how you prepare the tires and place them in the optimal temperature and pressure window is a key performance factor,” Fred Vasseur added to Sky Italia.
After qualifying, Charles Leclerc also expressed surprise at Ferrari’s clear improvement over Friday, especially since he could not explain the performance leap without radical changes to the car. For Fred Vasseur, however, these highs and lows are part of Ferrari’s ongoing challenge in maximizing tire performance during qualifying.
“This aspect explains the oscillation in performance much more than the car’s potential itself.” It is no secret that the SF-25 is highly sensitive on a single lap, often struggling to find peak performance from Q2 to Q3.
Fred Vasseur also reflected on Saturday morning’s Sprint Race, which Ferrari finished fourth and fifth, aided by McLaren’s double retirement. Lewis Hamilton had complained of strong understeer and difficulty warming the front tires, but Fred Vasseur attributed this mainly to race conditions. In dirty air, car balance changes significantly.
“Understeer happens just six car lengths behind someone. It’s true for Lewis because he was always a second behind Carlos Sainz. This completely changes the balance. You have a well-balanced car when alone, but if you’re behind someone else, you can’t maintain perfect balance in a race situation. It was almost possible for Lewis to overtake at the end. I think his pace was much better than Carlos [Sainz] this morning, but there was no chance to pass in the sprint,” Fred Vasseur explained.
Fred Vasseur declined to speculate too much about podium chances for tomorrow, noting Mercedes performed well in the sprint and McLaren remained uncertain, limiting himself to a “we’ll see.” However, speaking to Canal+, he emphasized how this result does the team good after a difficult period: “Satisfied? Yes and no. Yes, because we are coming back. No, because I think we could have done better. The situation is frustrating because we stopped development very early. This result does the team good.”
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