Ferrari finished the Monaco GP in second and fifth place. Fred Vasseur is fairly pleased with the outcome, though he was hoping for a little more. He is satisfied with the performance of his drivers but, after the results on Thursday, he believed a pole position on Saturday was within reach.
Unfortunately, Charles Leclerc was beaten by Lando Norris by just one tenth in the final lap of Q3. Ferrari’s race strategy was excellent, but the narrow streets of the Principality don’t allow for many overtakes.
Charles Leclerc finished second after a solid race where he showed strong pace, while Lewis Hamilton climbed to fifth after the grid penalty for impeding he received on Saturday. Both drivers performed very well, the SF-25 handled the track excellently, and Fred Vasseur is happy with that.
Fred Vasseur’s view on the Monaco GP
A week ago, it seemed unlikely that Ferrari could arrive in Monte Carlo and perform so well. Slow corners hadn’t been ideal for the SF-25, but today it showed great performance, and Charles Leclerc’s second place is confirmation of that.
“Yes, all in all I’m happy. I think on Thursday we would have signed for a second place. It’s true that, having topped all the free practice sessions and Q1 yesterday, we were expecting a bit more and were frustrated after qualifying. Today we did our job, but it was practically impossible to overtake,” said Fred Vasseur. “With Lewis [Hamilton]’s penalty, we only had one car to fight the McLarens, and that put us slightly on the back foot. Charles [Leclerc] did an excellent job, was consistent and always there. But for us it was impossible to attack, and we had to focus more on defending than pushing.”
This two-stop race sparked a lot of controversy among drivers and some teams, who found certain strategies to be somewhat unethical. The Frenchman did not openly comment, saying it would be discussed privately between the teams, the FIA, and FOM.
“Honestly, during the race I don’t watch TV. So I apologize. And frankly, I don’t care about what’s happening behind me. For me it’s a bit hard to draw conclusions. I had the impression that some teams played the team game, slowing one car down to give a free pit stop to the other. Clearly, with two stops, you allow for this kind of trickery,” explained the Ferrari team principal.
“I can understand the drivers’ point of view when you’re stuck behind a slower car in the race – it’s not great,” he added. “But we should discuss it internally with the other teams, the FIA, and FOM to see what we can do to improve the situation.”
Lewis Hamilton’s race
Despite Lewis Hamilton’s solid race, it was clear he couldn’t match the pace of the cars ahead of him, including his teammate’s SF-25.
Fred Vasseur commented: “Yes, he had very strong pace until lap 30/35. When Alonso and Hadjar came in, he was able to catch the group with Verstappen. But then in traffic he lost much more time than the 4 or 5 cars ahead of him.”
“Then more cars joined the group, he was alone, and he lost something like 10 seconds compared to the others,” added the Ferrari TP. “That’s probably when he completely lost his rhythm. Here it gets much harder when you’re 10 to 20 seconds behind.”
In the end, for Fred Vasseur, the real issue wasn’t Hamilton’s race performance but the penalty from the day before.
The Frenchman stated: “To summarize Lewis’s weekend, it was much more about the penalty yesterday than anything that happened in the race today that hurt his performance.”
Looking ahead to the Spanish GP
He was asked about the new regulation coming into effect at the next race in Spain, which will introduce new front wings for all teams. Jokingly, Carlo Vanzini also asked whether it would be easier for Paris Saint-Germain to win the Champions League or for Ferrari to return to victory – a question Fred Vasseur preferred not to answer.
“I don’t know if I’m an expert in Formula 1, but I’m definitely not an expert in football. That’s for sure. So I won’t talk about PSG. But it’s true that from the Spanish GP onward there will be new regulations for the front wing,” said the 56-year-old.
“All teams have marked this date on the calendar as a turning point. Because we don’t know what the others’ performance will be under these new conditions,” he added. “There could be a significant reset. But for now, we have to focus on ourselves and try to improve in every type of corner. I think we’ve made good progress in high-speed corners, while this weekend went well in low-speed ones. We’ll try to confirm all this in Spain.”
“In Barcelona, all teams will have a new front wing. And I think it makes sense to bring only the front wing [as an upgrade] to have a clearer picture,” Fred Vasseur concluded.
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