Fred Vasseur reacts to Ferrari’s issue in Budapest: “A shame, we were at McLaren’s level until late in the race”. Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur reflects on Charles Leclerc’s disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix result.

The Ferrari team principal comments bitterly on the result of the Hungarian Grand Prix but also looks at the positive aspects: “For several parts of the race, we matched the pace of the McLarens.” Now, however, it is necessary to understand what slowed Charles Leclerc in the last stint.

Up to about two-thirds of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari truly savored the chance to win the first race of the season. Then, something happened to Charles Leclerc’s SF-25 car, something not yet clear, that caused him to lose approximately 2 seconds per lap.

This allowed the McLaren team to secure their fourth consecutive one-two finish of the season and achieve the 200th victory in their history. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc was even overtaken by George Russell’s Mercedes, finishing off the podium in a weekend where he had secured pole position.

At the end of the race, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur gave his usual interview to Sky Sport F1 to comment on what had happened, and inevitably, almost all the focus was on the problem that slowed Charles Leclerc during the final stint of the race.

Obviously, it was a disappointing result. The struggles for Charles Leclerc began immediately after fitting the new set of hard tires. Do you think it was a tire pressure problem?
“Probably, but we need to investigate further. However, the gap was not huge. It’s true that during the first two stints we were in control, and in the first stint, we even managed to create a small gap over Oscar Piastri. During the second stint, we were under more pressure but still managed to manage first place well. In the final stint, we were 2 seconds per lap slower than the McLarens, and we completely lost the race. It’s truly disappointing because up until that moment we were performing very well and Charles was able to lead the race. We should have expected to do a much better overall job.”

Lewis Hamilton’s race was not good either. Perhaps starting on hard tires did not help…
“He immediately lost two positions at the start and then got stuck in traffic. He was behind a huge DRS train, which was the worst possible scenario, because even if you have better pace than the car ahead, you have no chance to overtake. And that was the case for 30 laps. We then tried a pit stop, but it didn’t help.”

Charles said he had a chassis problem from lap 40…
“Yes, he did have one. But I think saying it was from lap 40 means he was still in the second stint. The problem actually started during the third stint.”

What can be learned from this weekend?
“Saturday was a good but chaotic day. Also, in the early part of the race, I believe we were matching the McLaren’s pace. Probably, this was the first time this year we matched their race pace, and we had also managed to create a nice gap over George Russell. At one point, we were even 15 seconds ahead, but then we lost everything, losing 2 seconds per lap. We need to understand what happened during the last 30 laps of the race. But we can also take positives from the weekend because in many phases we matched the pace of the McLaren.”