Ferrari couldn’t have done more in Baku
Charles Leclerc’s third place finish in the 2023 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the best result Scuderia Ferrari could have hoped for in a race without any significant incidents.
It was clear that the Monegasque’s pole position was not enough and destined to be overturned by Red Bull, which is in a different category in this early part of the 2023 Formula 1 season (Charles Leclerc‘s own words).
Team principal Frederic Vasseur, practical and pragmatic as always, therefore sees the glass as half full: Ferrari not only secured third place, but also showed improvements in race pace, degrading the tires less than in the first two races (Bahrain and Saudi Arabia) confirming the promising feelings from Melbourne.
Fred Vasseur’s words
“It’s not important how I feel with my first podium in a race with Ferrari, what’s important is that we’ve taken a step forward in terms of performance with the two poles and today’s race. The goal is still to win, but at least we’ve done a good job. After Melbourne, we knew the pace was good, but we weren’t able to put everything together, whereas today we took a step forward. Now we’re heading to Miami, and it’ll be another story. We will start introducing updates from Miami and see how the car performs.” – the French manager added.
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Understanding the package
“Everyone will bring upgrades in the next races, and we shouldn’t expect to do more. I think the performance comes more from the fact that we’ve been able to use the package we have very well, and that’s where we’ve improved a lot compared to Jeddah, for example. We’ve worked better in operational terms, and I’m very satisfied with the work we’ve done so far, we’re on the right track. I don’t think Red Bull managed the race, they never do. They always push to the maximum. The condition of their tires was similar to ours towards the end of the race, and that’s why we had a similar pace to theirs in the last laps.” – Fred Vasseur explained.
The drivers
“Charles said he loves Ferrari and wants to become world champion with Ferrari, we have to remain calm. We’re at the beginning of the season, where all the voices are heard every weekend, but it’s not a topic of discussion”
“Charles had a perfect weekend, on the single lap he made a magic moment and over the long distance, when we asked him to push and create a gap to Fernando, he did great. He made only one mistake in Q3 on lap 2, but it wasn’t a mistake for me because he had already taken pole position so he achieved the goal,” continued the Frenchman, who then spoke about Carlos Sainz’s fifth place. “In some cases, Carlos was ahead of Charles, but in this weekend, he lost the car in the first corner of Q1, so it was tough for him. He had to use the second set and this made him lose a bit of confidence: if you lose it here, it becomes a nightmare, like in Monte-Carlo. He didn’t have time to build confidence between the free practice and qualifying, and this forced him to chase from behind. With this situation, I’m still happy with his fifth place because from the beginning we knew it would be a difficult weekend, but he remained focused until the end of the race.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
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