Despite high expectations at the 4.657-kilometre Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the updates introduced by Ferrari in Barcelona were not sufficient to fight for victory. After the double retirement in Canada, the Maranello team finds itself watching its rivals on the podium in the 2024 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
Assessment postponed to Austria
While a very competitive performance was expected from Red Bull (with Max Verstappen) and McLaren (with Lando Norris), Ferrari’s disappointment was even greater as they finished behind both Mercedes, although Charles Leclerc came close to snatching fourth place from George Russell on the last lap.
Were the developments a failure? No, according to Frederic Vasseur. Speaking to the media after the Barcelona race, the Frenchman expressed satisfaction with the progress made, even though the full potential of the package will likely be seen only after a few races: “For now we are satisfied with the numbers we have, but we must also consider that everyone is improving.”
“This means that bringing something new to the car does not necessarily translate into a step forward, just as not having updates does not mean taking a step back. Now everyone brings new things every two or three races.” – the Ferrari team boss pointed out.
“The list that arrives on Friday morning from the FIA only concerns aerodynamic components, but we must not forget that we are not only developing aerodynamics. Sometimes it takes two or three races to extract the maximum from the package.”
The manager from France then looked ahead to the next race in Austria, where Ferrari is expected to deliver an important on-track response if the goal remains to fight for the constructors’ championship: “Perhaps we will optimize the car better next week in Austria.”
“Last year it was often like this for everyone. If we analyze the performance in the race where each team brought something, it was the next race that showed actual performance improvements.” – he continued – “It will be like this until the end because we have a sort of performance asymptote. All development packages are now much smaller compared to two years ago.” – Fred Vasseur concluded.
With the result at Montmelò, Scuderia Ferrari slips to -60 in the constructors’ standings compared to Red Bull, with yet another lackluster performance by Sergio Perez allowing Ferrari to once again limit the damage. McLaren is getting closer, and thanks to Lando Norris’s second place and Oscar Piastri’s seventh, they are now -33 behind Ferrari ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
Source: f1ingenerale
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