Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur explains what went wrong in Las Vegas, likely the last track where Ferrari could have realistically aimed for a win in this difficult 2025 season.
For Ferrari, Las Vegas should have represented probably the final hope to win a race this season. But even this opportunity vanished.
It began on Saturday, with a qualifying session that was far more complicated than it might appear at first glance, highlighting the significant challenges faced by the Maranello team. The race itself went better, because on a dry track the SF-25s of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton managed to climb into the points.
However, the points haul was meager. Unless surprises occur, this will likely leave Ferrari in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, with the best-case scenario being third. The season’s outcome for the team now seems largely decided.
Frédéric Vasseur spoke to Sky Sport F1 for his usual end-of-weekend analysis, touching on several factors that slowed the Ferraris on track.
Lewis Hamilton’s race
“Lewis had a great start but then got stuck in traffic. Even on Medium tires, the pace seemed much worse than on the Hards. How would you describe his race?” asked the interviewer.
Fred Vasseur replied: “Lewis started well, and he recovered nicely from 20th position. But we were all blind with the tires and very surprised to see Antonelli do 48 laps on the same compound (the Hards), while other cars struggled. We struggled ourselves. The difference is that Antonelli ran 48 laps in clean air at the front. He only had to overtake Ocon, which makes a huge difference because you can manage the tires better, and it has a significant impact on race pace.”
Leclerc and strategy errors
“Leclerc had a great race. Perhaps the strategy was wrong?” the interviewer asked.
Fred Vasseur responded: “We could have definitely done better in that regard. But it’s not simple, because if we had pitted one lap earlier, we would have ended up behind Sainz. We decided to be more aggressive, but it’s always easier to discuss these things after the race and say something could have been done differently. Charles had a good start but then had contact with Alonso, which pushed him down to 11th. From there, he was able to make a strong comeback.”
Message to Ferrari fans
“A couple of weeks have passed since Brazil, do you want to send a message to Ferrari fans?” asked the interviewer.
Fred Vasseur replied: “The message is that there are still two races to go. It’s difficult to say when you’ve just finished a weekend in sixth position, but overall the problem wasn’t the pace—it was not being able to put everything together in qualifying. We may also have focused on the wrong downforce setup yesterday when it rained in qualifying, while in the race we got stuck behind other cars even though the pace was better. Charles probably had better pace than Oscar Piastri and Kimi Antonelli. We will have to try to avoid making the same mistakes in Qatar and Abu Dhabi if we want to win a race before the season ends.” – the French manager concluded at the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
