Fred Vasseur questioned how Mercedes had not been identified as having Formula 1’s best engine after George Russell produced a dominant Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying performance in Baku. Ferrari still secured a front-row start through Charles Leclerc, but the gap to pole was striking: more than eight tenths of a second separated the Monegasque from the Mercedes driver.
Kimi Antonelli’s mistake in Q1 had opened up an opportunity at the front of the grid, and Charles Leclerc took full advantage at a circuit where he has traditionally been particularly effective over a single qualifying lap. The Ferrari driver secured second place, while Russell was comfortably clear at the top. The full picture can be seen in the Azerbaijan GP qualifying results.
Fred Vasseur questions Mercedes engine assessment after Baku qualifying
Speaking to Sky after the session, Fred Vasseur was asked how Mercedes could have avoided being identified as the best engine on the Formula 1 grid despite the performance seen in Baku.
“I don’t know, ask the FIA. I would probably give you a different answer,” the Ferrari team principal replied. “It does seem strange. It doesn’t depend only on the engine, but also on drag, and I think Max Verstappen had a battery problem. I don’t know whether it was on that lap or not.”
Fred Vasseur’s comments came after a qualifying session in which the performance gap between Mercedes and Ferrari was particularly visible. While outright engine performance was part of the discussion, the Frenchman also stressed that straight-line competitiveness cannot be attributed to the power unit alone because aerodynamic drag also influences the final picture.
The scale of Russell’s advantage over Leclerc was nevertheless significant, with more than eight tenths separating pole position from Ferrari’s best lap. The detailed differences from the session can be explored through the F1 Qualifying Pace & Sector Comparison.
Charles Leclerc reaches front row but Lewis Hamilton starts sixth
Charles Leclerc managed to extract enough from the SF-26 to secure the front row, but Lewis Hamilton could not match his team-mate’s result and will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from sixth position.
Fred Vasseur explained that the seven-time world champion’s Q3 was compromised early when he made a mistake and touched the wall. “Lewis made a mistake at the beginning of Q3, he touched the wall, and that forced him to chase,” Vasseur explained. “He found himself without any tows and that cost him one or two tenths, which would have allowed him to recover at least one position.”
The absence of a slipstream therefore added to Hamilton’s difficulties during the decisive part of qualifying. More coverage of the British driver’s Ferrari season and Baku weekend is available in the Lewis Hamilton section.
Ferrari will ultimately start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with one car on the front row and the other in sixth, but George Russell’s sizeable advantage remains the clearest indication of the performance gap the Scuderia faced over a single lap in Baku.
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