The 2023 Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix has concluded, and the Ferrari team is in good spirits. While they didn’t reach the podium, the fourth and fifth-place finishes achieved by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. brought a smile to Frédéric Vasseur’s face.
The Scuderia Ferrari team principal was able to appreciate the improvements made to the SF-23 cars with the updates introduced by the team in Barcelona, which were then confirmed at the North American circuit dedicated to the memory of Gilles Villeneuve.
A strong comeback brought the Reds close to the podium, and their strategy of making only one pit stop played a significant role. Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz stayed on track despite the deployment of the Safety Car, allowing the marshals to remove the stranded Williams of Logan Sargeant from the circuit.
“Today was a good day, a good race,” Fred Vasseur said. “The summary of the weekend is that on Friday, we already saw that we had a good pace in both single-lap performance and race pace. Yesterday was more difficult, mainly due to challenging conditions. We started in tenth and eleventh positions, which was frustrating, but we staged a strong comeback, demonstrating good pace. The strategy was also good. We decided to keep both cars out during the Safety Car period to have some clean air ahead and push. The drivers did a great job.” – the French manager pointed out.
“It is always important for everyone’s confidence, including the drivers. We knew we had good pace because we saw it on Friday, but there are always uncertainties during practice sessions. You never know the engine mappings of others or their fuel loads… It’s always good to have a consistent race. In the last 30 laps, we had the pace of Hamilton and Alonso. I honestly think this is a significant step forward.” – Fred Vasseur continued.
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Making the weekend more challenging for the Maranello team was the qualifying session. Without the mistakes made by the team and the drivers, the final result could have been different and probably better. However, Fred Vasseur has already put yesterday’s events behind him and is focusing on the future, specifically the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
“Regret for the qualifying session? It’s not the right word. We need to try to correct the mistakes we made, and we will discuss them on Tuesday. It’s a good lesson to learn, especially in preparation for Austria. We hope to be in good form on that track as well, and we need to have a perfect weekend to achieve a better result than this.” – he added.
Ferrari will approach Austria with the intention of verifying whether the updates can also perform well on a permanent track with different characteristics from Montreal. However, the Maranello team will also have to work on integrating the package introduced in Barcelona with the new developments that Ferrari will bring specifically for the upcoming World Championship event.
“We are improving step by step. We have understood certain things, but we need confirmation on other tracks because Montreal is a unique circuit. The curbs make a difference here. We have seen on different occasions that it is quite a green track, whereas in Austria, we will encounter a different situation. Now we need to focus on the upcoming races. In Austria, we will bring some more updates for the SF-23, and we will have to put everything together to strive for a mistake-free weekend.”
“I don’t want to talk about Ferrari being ready to win a Grand Prix. Right now, I’m only focused on the team. We know that if we want to achieve a great result, we need to have a perfect weekend, perform very well in both qualifying and the race. Certainly, in Austria, we will have two attempts because there will also be the Sprint Race. But I am definitely optimistic,” concluded the Ferrari team principal after the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
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