After Saturday’s disappointing qualifying, Ferrari fans were hoping to see a comeback drive from Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Both Ferrari drivers managed to recover several positions during the Imola GP, with a podium that, according to Fred Vasseur, could have been within reach if not for the interruptions.
With a better qualifying, Sunday could have gone very differently for the Scuderia from Maranello. Indeed, the SF-25 confirmed the strong race pace already shown during Friday’s free practice sessions. Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton demonstrated great speed on both the medium and hard tyres, managing to stay ahead of the Mercedes cars.
The final fourth and sixth places represent a result that was far from guaranteed after being knocked out in Q3, and it lifts the team’s morale after the heavy criticism received in recent days. Thanks to Kimi Antonelli’s retirement, Ferrari also recovered points in the Constructors’ standings and heads to Monaco in a better mood than the one that had led Leclerc to apologize to the fans after Imola qualifying.
The words of Ferrari’s team principal after the race
After the race, Fred Vasseur commented on Ferrari’s performance in the Imola GP. “Yesterday we found ourselves in the same situation as Miami and Jeddah. We’re lacking performance in qualifying and need to work on it. Our race pace, however, is always very strong.”
“Putting on the soft tyres at the end was a risk. Thirteen laps would have been too much, and even eight was already close to the limit. In the end, the call was the right one. Obviously, we always want more, but the Safety Cars didn’t go in Charles’ favour. We always have to try to extract the maximum from the car, and I think we did that today.”
Fred Vasseur then spoke about what’s happening within the team. “The hardest part of my job is doing analysis. We’re not where we want to be, and we have to assess what’s working and what’s going wrong. The fact that we’re missing performance on Saturdays is clear to everyone, and it will be crucial especially since we’ll be in Monaco next week. There, tyre management will be a bit different, so the situation might change compared to Imola.”
The Ferrari team principal also explained why they asked Leclerc to give the position back to Alex Albon. “We had a bad feeling about the investigation involving Charles, so we preferred to give the position back to Albon. I want to thank the fans for their support. Even after qualifying, they gave us the push we needed to bounce back.
