Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur: “McLaren outstanding on tyre management, our car limited by ride height”. Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur explains why McLaren has been superior in tyre management.

Ferrari vs McLaren
As Formula 1 heads towards the Dutch Grand Prix, which at the end of August will mark the end of Zandvoort’s current chapter in F1, Scuderia Ferrari sits in second place in the Constructors’ Championship with 260 points. However, the Italian team trails McLaren by a huge margin of 299 points. This gap has been created by an almost flawless first half of the season from the team from Woking, which in recent years had often found itself battling directly with Ferrari for similar positions in the standings.

In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur was asked directly about the current difference between the two teams. Was it a step forward from McLaren, or a step backwards from Ferrari? “In the last three or four race weekends we have managed to reduce the gap to two tenths,” explained the Frenchman. “At the start of the season we had many problems with track operations. There were quality issues, then the disqualifications. We lost a little bit of direction. It all comes down to details, and qualifying in Budapest was a perfect example. If you focus on the wrong things, you immediately and massively lose ground. If Charles [Leclerc] had been two tenths slower, he would have finished sixth instead of first. It is very difficult to understand in every moment what is truly important to be fast.”

Key differences
In continuing the comparison with McLaren, Frédéric Vasseur highlighted not only what Ferrari might be missing compared to the British team, but also the limitations that have hampered the Scuderia in the first half of the championship. “McLaren is exceptional in tyre management, especially in wet conditions or in hot weather,” he commented. “The disqualifications [referring to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in China] disrupted our plans a little. We then had to leave a safety margin regarding the ride height of the car. As everyone knows, these cars are extremely sensitive in terms of ride height. Every single millimetre means a position on the starting grid. If you do not have full control of the vehicle’s height, you compromise the competitiveness of the car. To solve the problem, you then lose focus on other things. Tyre preparation for qualifying, the warm-up laps, who knows.”

“Everything revolves around the stability of the aerodynamic platform,” he added when discussing the limitations Ferrari has faced. “For the past two years we have paid much more attention to drivability and predictability rather than pure downforce. The most important step we made in this direction since 2023 was at Monza last year. In this way, the driver can get more out of the package. If he is not confident about how the car behaves, he will always be too far away from the limit.”

With this analysis, Frédéric Vasseur has once again underlined the importance of details in Formula 1, where the combination of tyre management, aerodynamics, and mechanical balance can make the difference between fighting for victories and being left behind. For Ferrari, the challenge remains to close the gap to McLaren while building consistency and confidence for both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in the second half of the season.