Ferrari team boss believes Chinese GP will be “a race of tire management, not speed”. Fred Vasseur admits some difficulty in adapting to the new tire pressures.

After dominating the F1 weekend in China, with pole position for the Sprint Race and a win by Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari only obtained fifth and sixth place for the start of the Grand Prix that will take place in Shanghai tomorrow.

The Reds failed to confirm themselves on Saturday afternoon, with Lewis Hamilton fifth, almost 0.3 seconds behind poleman Oscar Piastri from McLaren, and his teammate Charles Leclerc right behind.

In the first two rounds of qualifying today, the SF-25s struggled a lot, then gained ground in the final session, showing some difficulties in adapting to the pressure change imposed by Pirelli (from 26.5 to 27.5 in the front and from 23.0 to 24.0 in the rear) for safety reasons, as the Chinese asphalt provides more grip than expected.

This is what team principal Frédéric Vasseur discussed, who, speaking to Sky Sport F1, did not seem overly concerned about the race despite today’s results not being as good as those previously achieved.

“In the end, I think everyone expected to do a better job in this session. We struggled in Q2, but then in Q3, we managed to make a huge improvement, taking a small step back,” said Frédéric Vasseur.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to optimize everything, but the pace is there overall, and we are aware that in the race, we will have to keep an eye on the high tire degradation.”

After this morning’s Sprint, did you have to change something in the setup, looking for compromises for tomorrow’s race?
“I don’t want to get into this area and then trigger thousands of comments, but it’s true that this morning the tire degradation was a little higher than everyone expected. Some had more than others, but in general, it was high. Tomorrow’s race will be managed more by tire degradation than speed.”

Did the rule change on tire pressures also lead to setup changes?
“Honestly, no, the fact is that in Q2, we started too far back. At the beginning of Q1, we managed to do a good lap with used tires, then we struggled a little, so for Q3, we went back to the initial plan, but slightly late to manage to do two good laps. But I think it was difficult for everyone; in each session, changing the different tire sets, we noticed differences in the standings and lap times. We have to keep everything under control because it will be a key aspect for the rest of the season.”