After narrowly missing out on pole position in Monaco, Ferrari struggled a bit in qualifying for the Spanish GP, as confirmed by Team Principal Fred Vasseur at the end of Saturday in Barcelona.
The two SF-25s of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will start from fifth and seventh on the grid, respectively. In particular, the strategy used with the Monegasque driver sparked debate, as he completed only one lap on fresh soft tyres in Q3. This choice left number 16 far from his rivals and his teammate, who had briefly been third before being overtaken by Max Verstappen and George Russell.
Fred Vasseur’s words after qualifying
At the end of qualifying at Montmeló, Fred Vasseur commented on his team’s performance, highlighting what went wrong and what needs improvement ahead of the race:
“We decided to keep two new sets of medium tyres for the race and we’ll also have a soft with only one lap on it. We gave up something in qualifying, but we’re focused on tomorrow. Lewis did a good job, we only struggled a bit at the beginning, but overall it went well. The strategy was focused on the race, even if it’s a gamble. We’ll have two new sets and that gives us more flexibility in terms of choices. In these situations there are always pros and cons, but Charles was convinced it was the right call even if it will be a challenge. We made this decision and now we have to stick with it until the end.”
“We didn’t run at the end because in the second run there are always more risks, so we went out earlier. In the race we’ll be fighting with Max for the podium, although on other occasions we’ve had the pace to match McLaren in the race. So who knows, maybe we can hold on and fight them for the win,” said the Ferrari Team Principal.
For the two Ferrari cars, it will be crucial to get off to the best possible start in order to stay in the slipstream of the two McLaren cars and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. The fresh tyre could prove to be a wildcard to launch an attack for the top spot.
