Ferrari’s Team Principal assessed the first day of free practice in Austria, divided between the necessary tests to understand the new floor—which gave positive signs—and a chaotic Friday, complicated by some technical issues. On single-lap pace, the Ferrari seems more distant, while race pace feedback is more encouraging.
The Austrian round is the first real turning point of the season for Ferrari, a key opportunity to start getting back on the right path for a second half of the championship that could bring more satisfaction.
The floor making its debut in Austria will not solve all the problems experienced so far, but it should represent a first step in the right direction. Unlike the floor updates introduced at the Bahrain GP—planned well in advance before the season—the updates brought to the Red Bull Ring are specifically designed to address the issues identified in the early races of the championship.
It’s a major intervention, noticeable from the numerous changes in critical areas of such a sensitive component: from the diffuser to the floor edge, including the venturi channel inlets, confirming the extent of the project revision. Naturally, this also led the team to spend part of the day conducting comparison tests between various solutions.
“Yes, it went well. Clearly, we need to analyze more deeply, because the morning was a bit chaotic for us. We used FP2 as a testing session and will look at the data tonight,” explained Frederic Vasseur to Sky Sport F1, commenting on the first indications from the drivers and the data collected.
“The drivers had good feedback, although this morning we had a gearbox issue with Lewis, which cost us most of the session. But we repeated the tests in FP2,” added the Ferrari Team Principal, referring to the issue the Briton had in the first session.
In fact, Hamilton later continued running after losing about ten minutes in the garage, but as a precaution the team chose to replace the transmission between sessions—a sign the problem wasn’t fully resolved and that, rather than risk losing more time in the afternoon, they opted for the safer route.
Vasseur did not want to make predictions about Ferrari’s potential for the rest of the weekend. As seen in previous rounds, the gap over a single lap is wider than the gap on race pace. Charles Leclerc, back in the car for FP2 after giving it up to Dino Beganovic in the morning rookie session, ended up six tenths behind the McLarens, losing most of that time in specific areas of the track—particularly the braking zones of Turns 1 and 4, where it’s crucial to attack the entry and maintain good mid-corner speed. The gap also widened in Turn 6 and the Turn 7/8 chicane, where the MCL39’s higher downforce becomes evident.
“I hope, or believe, that McLaren was running with low fuel as they usually do during FP2 or FP3. We, instead, followed our usual program.”
“Charles recovered well. He didn’t take part in FP1, he did FP2 and the pace was good, so let’s focus on that. But first, let’s calmly look at the data tonight—it’s our first time running this floor, and we’ll need to make some adjustments,” Vasseur added, before also explaining why the two drivers ran with different setups during the day.
“We did these tests to have a good comparison between the two cars, and now we have the whole evening to make a decision for tomorrow.”
It’s been two intense weeks for Vasseur, with rumors about his position becoming more frequent. However, he responded firmly during the Canadian GP weekend. It remains a hot topic, but the Ferrari Team Principal reiterated how focused the team is on the Austrian weekend.
“We are trying to stay focused on the work we have to do. When the weekend arrives, it’s very important to stay focused, working as a team—and so far, we’re doing that well. So let’s concentrate on that.”
