Ferrari’s mixed Friday at Circuit de Catalunya: Fred Vasseur points out a crucial element in Spain. Ferrari shows promise in FP1 but struggles in FP2 at the Spanish GP.

The F1 Spanish GP starts uphill for Ferrari: Frédéric Vasseur talks about Friday and the steps to take next. The SF-25 shone in the morning, with higher temperatures and Charles Leclerc’s excellent race pace on soft tyres. In the second free practice session, however, the Monegasque driver appeared to struggle more. Lewis Hamilton did better than him, though he still didn’t feel comfortable in the car.

Everything was supposed to change, and yet, at first glance at the timesheets, nothing has changed at all. The much-talked-about technical directive on flexible wings hasn’t affected the balance of power on track: McLaren remains ahead—Lando Norris showed great race pace on both the medium and soft compounds—followed by Red Bull with Max Verstappen. Behind them, Ferrari and Mercedes are fighting for the roles of third and fourth force.

The Brackley team worked extensively on the softer compounds during FP2, while the Maranello team split their programme between softs and mediums. While Lewis Hamilton found a good rhythm on the medium tyres (with consistent lap times between 1:20.4 and 1:20.5), Charles Leclerc struggled more. At the end of the session, the Monegasque driver let out a team radio full of frustration.

Fred Vasseur: “We need to improve and put the pieces together”
Commenting on the just-concluded session, the Scuderia’s team principal urged calm: “I think we had very good pace this morning,” explained the French engineer, as reported by Crash.net. “In the afternoon we struggled a bit more. I think Charles did a decent lap before the mistake at Turn 7—he was gaining on the top time.” – the French manager pointed out.

“But the goal is to put all the pieces together, not just do well in certain corners. And then we struggled a bit more at the start of each stint during the simulations. I believe it was like that for us, but also for a couple of other cars. The track was very dirty, with lots of marbles as soon as we went off the racing line.”

“All in all, it was a long day, but we gathered good information. It was the first time we used the new front wing. I think we’ll have a lot to work on tonight.” – Fred Vasseur concluded.