In Japan, Ferrari did what it could, bringing home a fourth and seventh place in a rather anonymous performance, with Frederic Vasseur offering little hope for the future, even regarding the aerodynamic updates. After the race, the team principal reviewed the situation and explained what happened at Suzuka.
First of all, Fred Vasseur analyzed the race and qualifying pace and compared it to McLaren’s. “I think it’s fair to say that we were 2/3 tenths behind both in qualifying and in the race. We can do better, but this is the current picture.” In fact, the gap to McLaren and Max Verstappen was quite clear after what was seen on the Japanese circuit.
The strategy that didn’t pay off and Ferrari’s updates
Not only that, Ferrari also tried to differentiate the strategy with Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion started on hard tires, while everyone else was on medium tires. However, after the pit stops, Lewis Hamilton, with what was supposed to be an advantageous tire compound, never gained any ground, even though the others were on the white tires.
“Did Hamilton’s strategy not work? There was no real difference between the two compounds; degradation and performance were very similar. Hamilton followed the pace of the others when they were on the mediums, and he didn’t do any better. So, don’t say it was the wrong strategy, it’s just that the performance wouldn’t have changed much,” explained the Ferrari team principal at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix regarding the decision made by the team.
The French manager then clarified the issue about the updates. “We will definitely bring updates soon, but first, we need to fix the balance issues, and we need to make the most of this car. We still have potential to extract right now, and at the moment, it doesn’t make sense. But even when the updates come, there won’t be miracles for us, nor for the others. We need to take it one step at a time.” – Fred Vasseur concluded.
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