The victory in Melbourne is already in the books and now Ferrari finds itself dealing with a situation very similar to the one faced in Sakhir and Jeddah, in the first two races of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
At Suzuka, the Red Bulls have returned to dominate, while the Reds have struggled quite a bit on the dry lap, ending the session in fourth place with Carlos Sainz and only eighth with Charles Leclerc.
Apart from the Red Bulls – today unstoppable – the Red could find itself in a close and tight battle with McLaren, Aston Martin, and Mercedes for the lowest step of the podium, unless there are stunning surprises like the one that changed the fate of the Australian Grand Prix.
“It’s difficult to have a clear picture of tomorrow’s race right now,” said Frédéric Vasseur, team principal of Ferrari, to Sky Sport F1 microphones at the end of Qualifying. “We are all very close, there’s a tenth between fourth and ninth place in qualifying, which means the group is compact, and the first lap tomorrow will be very important. It’s also true that tire degradation on the race pace was under control, so this puts us in a good position for the race. But it’s a shame for today’s qualifying. We could have aimed for a better result.” – he added.
Charles Leclerc didn’t have the chance to do the two customary attempts in Q3, using only the remaining new set of Softs after using more than expected in Q1 to secure himself from an unforeseen, but risky situation. According to Frederic Vasseur, it was that moment that prevented Ferrari from achieving a better result than what they did today.
“The mistake in qualifying, if there was one, was that we put the passage to Q2 at risk in Q1. This forced us to mount another new set of Softs, and even in Q2, we were always a bit behind. So, we could only do one attempt with Charles in Q3, while our direct rivals all made two. It’s something that originated in Q1, not in Q3. It’s a shame, because I think we could have done a bit better today.”
Ferrari showed several flaws both in the first sector – where the sequence of fast corners that instead exalts Red Bull and McLaren is present – and in the third. And it is precisely here that Vasseur’s analysis focused. According to the French team principal, Ferrari loses a lot of time in the last corner of the chicane, the one that then leads onto the finish straight.
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This can mean several things. From a non-optimal setup to, even more likely, a misinterpretation of the chicane by the drivers due to a relative confidence in the car. But it will be a fundamental aspect to fix before the race because ensuring a good exit from the corner and exploiting the only valid portion of track where to use the DRS could be decisive.
“Today in all sessions, we struggled a lot in turn 17, the last one of the chicane before the finish line, where the gap was created compared to Max. We need to talk about it. We’re talking about a tenth between ninth and fourth place, and it’s a matter of details. But details are important, so we need to focus on this and understand why we lose so much time in the last corner. It will also be important to understand it in terms of the race because traction will be crucial. There’s only one straight with the DRS, so we need to solve the problem by tomorrow.” – he pointed out.
Regarding the race pace, Fred Vasseur said he was very happy with the tire degradation he noticed in Free Practice 1 yesterday and in Free Practice 3 held this morning. However, what is not possible to do is to compare the times with those of rivals because no one knows how much fuel and which mappings they used during the simulations.
“We need to pay attention to the pace itself; we don’t know the fuel level or the mappings used by others during the simulations. The degradation is what matters, and for us, it went well. It shows that we can do well and have good chances, but the position at the end of the first lap will be crucial. With clean air in front, it’s much better. It’s not easy to overtake here at Suzuka, and doing 30 laps behind a car is complicated. So, the first lap will be crucial,” concluded the Ferrari manager at the end of the qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix.
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