Ferrari’s podium drought continued at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, but Fred Vasseur believes the SF-26’s main problem is not its Sunday performance. After Charles Leclerc finished fourth and Lewis Hamilton retired almost immediately, the Ferrari team principal pointed instead to qualifying and the Scuderia’s inability to extract enough additional performance as Saturday develops.
It was another frustrating weekend for Maranello, extending Ferrari’s run without a Formula 1 podium. That was particularly disappointing because Madring’s twisty layout was not expected to punish cars suffering from a power-unit deficit as severely as circuits dominated by long straights, while Ferrari also arrived with the small advantage of having completed a filming day at the venue at the beginning of the summer.
Ferrari’s podium drought continues at Madring
Ferrari’s half-empty Sunday began with Lewis Hamilton’s retirement after only a short distance and ended with Charles Leclerc taking fourth place. Yet the Monegasque had led the race for almost 40 laps, staying out in the hope that a Safety Car or red flag might bring him back into contention for victory from a strategic perspective.
That interruption never came, but Charles Leclerc’s extended stint still highlighted one of the encouraging aspects of Ferrari’s performance. He managed his tyres extremely well and produced speed comparable to the drivers who eventually finished on the podium.
That race pace is the positive element Ferrari can take away from Madrid. The other side of the picture is that the SF-26 continues to look more effective in race conditions than over a qualifying lap, repeatedly forcing Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton into aggressive Sundays in which they must recover positions lost on Saturday.
Fred Vasseur says Ferrari’s main weakness remains qualifying
It was precisely that issue Fred Vasseur highlighted after the Grand Prix during a meeting in Ferrari’s hospitality area with several media outlets, including FormulaPassion.it.
“Honestly, if we missed something in terms of points, it was mostly in qualifying and a little bit at Monza. But in the race in Madrid we did what we had to do, we took the risk we had to take. We need to improve on Saturday, because the pace is there in the race,” Fred Vasseur explained.
The comments reinforce the picture that emerged from Ferrari’s Madrid qualifying performance, where the SF-26 showed competitive underlying potential but once again failed to maximise everything in the decisive part of the session.
Ferrari must extract more performance as qualifying develops
Fred Vasseur had already raised the subject after Friday practice. According to the French manager, Ferrari can still improve its understanding of the available grip in Q3, particularly because the team struggles to make the same performance step on the decisive lap that its rivals can achieve after Q1 and Q2.
“Monza was a completely different track, but if we take Zandvoort and this race, the profile of the event is a bit the same for us… We had decent pace in qualifying, but we were not able to put everything together on the final attempt,” Fred Vasseur said.
The concern, therefore, is not simply Ferrari’s absolute qualifying pace. It is the progression throughout the session: understanding the track evolution, grip level and available potential well enough to keep improving when Q3 reaches its decisive moments. The way lap times, sector performance and gaps develop through qualifying can also be explored through the F1 Qualifying Pace & Sector Comparison.
“If I had to focus the team’s attention on something today, it would be the evolution of qualifying pace. Not so much the qualifying pace itself, but the evolution, the steps you can make during the session. We were there in the positions from first to third, the potential is there, we just have to adapt better,” Fred Vasseur concluded.
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