While John Elkann expresses satisfaction with what Ferrari is showing in this early 2024 Formula One season, Frédéric Vasseur appears more pragmatic, looking ahead to the rest of the championship with the clear goal of recovering the gap to Red Bull. Scuderia Ferrari has confirmed its position as the second force in Formula 1 but remains distant from Red Bull, although the gap compared to last year has visibly decreased.
After the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the team principal of Ferrari spoke to Sky Sport F1 to comment on the Maranello team’s weekend and to outline the path to follow in the coming weeks for the ambitions of a team that has returned to play an important role since the start of 2024.
Fred Vasseur, how do you assess Oliver Bearman’s Formula 1 debut?
“I think Oliver had a great race. He had to manage many things, pit stops, start, but everything went smoothly, and he did an excellent job. He was also very good at holding off Norris and Hamilton, who were catching up with new Soft tires. He managed to grow further, improving lap after lap. I’m happy for him and the Ferrari Driver Academy. He did a really good job today.”
Are you satisfied with what Ferrari has shown in this early part of the season?
“Overall, we’ve taken a nice step forward in terms of tire degradation. But we need to step up in terms of performance. We’re 2-3 tenths behind Red Bull in qualifying, and we have a bigger gap in race pace, around 4-5 tenths. As soon as we have clear track, we have a good pace, but it’s not enough. We need to make another step. But we have to keep in mind that last year in Jeddah, we were one and a half seconds behind the best. Now we’re 4-5 tenths. It’s a good step forward; the season is long, and we’ll have other opportunities.”
Seeing the fastest laps of Leclerc and Bearman at the end of the race, were you a bit too conservative with the tires during the 50 laps?
“We were cautious with the tires because we were forced to pit too early after the first stint, about 7-8 laps. At that point, we knew we would have to manage the Hards for over 40 laps. I think it was the right choice. Norris did the opposite, but it didn’t go well. Considering that we did the first laps behind the McLarens with the Hards, we did well to be more conservative.”
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What is the main issue you have identified so far?
“The problem is that currently, we are not magical in straight-line speeds. We lost position to Perez at the start of the race for this reason. It was difficult to follow him with dirty air in front. It’s a complex combination. When one finds themselves in the middle of the pack, things get complicated and become more difficult. We saw many cars struggling to overtake, like Piastri behind Hamilton, for example. Red Bull clearly has an advantage, and when Perez overtook Charles, there was no way to fight with them. We have a performance gap with them, so we need to push to develop the car.”
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Do you think Australia will provide a clearer picture of the on-track values?
“I think we have already seen two very different tracks in terms of asphalt abrasiveness. I believe the picture is already quite clear because here we saw similar results to last week. We have taken a big step forward compared to last year, and McLaren has done the same. This means we need to focus on ourselves to do the best job possible, and we hope to have Carlos with us in the car.”
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