Frederic Vasseur opened up on Ferrari’s situation with just a few days ahead of the Jeddah weekend. Important answers are expected from the Saudi Arabian appointment, above all to understand which of the critical issues that emerged in Bahrain were linked to the Sakhir track and which instead to the pure performance of the single-seater.
Fred Vasseur insists a lot on understanding the car, it’s a message that emerges in several replies, because so far the SF-23 has only had the opportunity to race at Sakhir and this, according to the team principal of the Scuderia, makes any definitive assessment of the project premature.
Charles Leclerc, who will serve 10 penalty positions on the starting grid in Jeddah, according to Fred Vasseur has not felt the blow, the season is only in its very early stages and it will be a battle that has to take place above all in terms of updates, the only way forward to reduce the gap to Red Bull.
Finally, Fred played down the rumors of recent days that suggest there is panic in Maranello. The relationship with the CEO Benedetto Vigna is described as excellent, the departure of David Sanchez as a turnover that is no exception, and the possibility of other departures among the top figures is excluded.
What emerged from the post-race analysis done after the Bahrain GP?
“A good job was done in qualifying, we don’t know if using the second set of softs in Q3 Charles would have been able to take pole position, but in any case the performance was good, probably a little better than we expected. The race pace was less good and for different reasons. A gap emerged especially in the second stint because we underestimated how well the softs worked in those conditions. We learned our lesson.”
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What exactly happened to Charles Leclerc’s power unit?
“There were two different problems. On Sunday morning when we turned on the power unit, and then in the race. And twice the problem was linked to the control unit, an unexpected event that has never occurred in the past. We did an in-depth analysis of what happened and I think everything is now under control. But unfortunately Charles will have to serve a penalty in Jeddah because the regulation provides for the possibility of using only two ECUs for the whole season”.
We were shocked by the news of David Sanchez’s departure. What led to his decision of leaving the team?
“I don’t want to go into the terms of the contract, there are confidential aspects between the company and the employees. I just want to wish David the best of luck in his future, he’s made an important contribution to the team, but I don’t want to say anything else.”
Do you think there will be other people leaving the team soon?
“If you mean ‘key people’ I don’t think so, but otherwise in a team there are constantly people leaving and others arriving, it’s like this in every Formula 1 team. I can add that we are a solid group that is focusing on the future”.
Is the possibility of reducing the gap to Red Bull linked to the development program or are there other ways?
“If we don’t bring updates, the situation will get worse, because our opponents will. So we will try to bring some updates to Jeddah and Australia, hoping that what we saw in Bahrain is not the definitive scenario. We need to be able to bring updates throughout the season, and do it faster than anyone else. It’s the only way we have to be able to catch Red Bull”.
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