Fred Vasseur reacts to Ferrari’s qualifying and admits “we need to push more with updates” | 2024 Hungarian GP. Fred Vasseur shares his thoughts on a Hungarian GP qualifying.

A qualifying session marked by variable weather conditions delivered a fourth and sixth position to Ferrari. In the second row, next to the championship leader Max Verstappen, will be Carlos Sainz. In sixth position will be Monegasque Charles Leclerc.

The checkered flag on the Hungarian GP qualifying confirms a slightly more in-form Ferrari compared to previous weekends. However, the Ferrari SF-24 cars still appear distant from the trio formed by McLaren and Max Verstappen. The stopwatch confirms this: over four-tenths behind for Carlos Sainz from the leading trio in Q3, over six-tenths for Charles Leclerc.

Speaking to Sky Italia, the Scuderia’s team principal commented on Ferrari’s condition, still searching for its best form. “We did all the free practice sessions with very high temperatures, then in qualifying, they dropped a lot. It was difficult to manage. Congratulations to McLaren, they did an excellent job,” explained Fred Vasseur.

Is Charles Leclerc’s aggressiveness the cause of more frequent mistakes compared to his Maranello teammate? The French manager explained how the setups are actually very similar in both garages: “Both drivers are very close with the setup. There have been adjustments due to the drivers’ style, but nothing special. I think the FP2 mistake particularly impacted Charles Leclerc’s performance.” – he pointed out.

“The temperatures in the race should be much higher than today. It could be an opportunity for us. With higher degradation, there will be more chances to see overtakes and comebacks. But we’ll see. On Friday, we didn’t do the long run with Charles and only did one stint with Carlos.” – the Ferrari team boss explained.

Ferrari makes peace with bouncing: Fred Vasseur’s view
In conclusion, the good news is linked to the chronic bouncing issue: “We have fixed most of the bouncing problem. Now it is much easier for the drivers to understand the car and manage it. We are in a much better position than Silverstone. Now we need to catch up in terms of development and push more with updates, also growing in terms of aerodynamic load. But at least the bouncing has been under control this weekend so far.” – Fred Vasseur concluded at the end of the qualifying session for the 2024 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Source: f1ingenerale