Frédéric Vasseur believes that Zandvoort will be as complex as it was last year, but the team must do well to maximize the result before arriving at Monza with higher expectations.
Ferrari has resumed the 2024 Formula 1 season in a manner similar to what was seen at the end of July, thus being the fourth strongest team and clearly struggling compared to McLaren, Mercedes, and Red Bull.
In the first two free practice sessions at Zandvoort, the Ferraris first struggled with the weather conditions in the first session—though everyone was running under the same conditions—while in the afternoon, Ferrari had to do without the contribution of Carlos Sainz, who was sidelined by a gearbox failure.
With only Charles Leclerc on the track, Ferrari focused on improving the setup, doing long-run tests, and understanding where improvements could be made ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying. Frédéric Vasseur, team principal of Scuderia Ferrari, spoke to Sky Sport F1 to comment on the first day on track in the Netherlands.
“You always have to work hard on Friday, even when you’re in good form. But we know that Zandvoort is a complicated circuit because it’s a continuous sequence of curves, so if you make a mistake in one, you pay for it in all the following ones. We need to optimize the setup, but we could only work on one car due to the problem we encountered with Carlos Sainz’s car. Working with two cars is always a bit easier than with just one.”
“Certainly, the gearbox problem we had on Carlos Sainz‘s car will affect the weekend. It’s not ideal. We had Free Practice 1 in the wet, so we only had two sessions on the dry, Free Practice 2 and Free Practice 3. In Free Practice 2, we were able to run consistently with only one car, so we only have one session left, tomorrow morning. We will have two stints to improve the situation.”
With Sainz in the pits, Frederic Vasseur prefers to focus on the positive aspects seen today, namely the work done by Leclerc to be ready for tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.
“You always have to take the positive aspects of today. Charles did a lot of race simulation tests, and that’s always a good thing. But as I said earlier, Zandvoort is a complex track, where small differences can make a big difference. And that’s why we will continue to work overnight to improve the situation.” – the French manager added.
Ferrari was one of the few teams to arrive in the Netherlands without any updates for their cars, while others, like McLaren, brought a car that was almost revolutionized compared to the one that raced at Spa-Francorchamps last month. That’s why it was natural to ask Fred Vasseur if the updates for the SF-24 will arrive at the Monza track.
“We don’t have to wait for Monza. We need to do well here at Zandvoort. We know that last year Zandvoort was the most difficult weekend for us. And even if it will be very difficult, we must score points, that’s our job.” – Fred Vasseur pointed out.
“We need to focus on this weekend to score the maximum possible points, then Monza is another story and will come after Zandvoort. And I hope we will be in better shape. For now, we are focused here on Zandvoort,” concluded the French manager.
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