Qualifying Saturday at the Imola Grand Prix left a bitter taste for Fred Vasseur, who did not hide his frustration over a Ferrari still far from the front and unable to maximize its single-lap performance. The Scuderia’s team principal commented harshly on the result, calling it a copy-paste of the Miami weekend.
“Undoubtedly a very tough day for us,” admitted Fred Vasseur. “We weren’t able to improve with the new set of tyres, our fastest lap came on the first set in Q2. It’s a strange situation, but we have to work on it.” The difficulty in finding performance with new tyres has been a recurring issue in the Ferrari garage: “Others improved by three or four tenths, we didn’t. When you fit new tyres and don’t improve, it’s very frustrating.”
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Fred Vasseur also referred to Charles Leclerc’s words after the session: “Fine, we can tweak the tyres, but the car just isn’t good enough. There’s no potential.” A strong statement that led the team principal to analyze the reasons for the flop: “I think it’s 50-50 between potential and execution. If we do everything right, we’re fourth or fifth today. We didn’t do everything right, so the problem lies in both.”
Despite the development work on the SF-25, Fred Vasseur admits the car is still not fully understood: “If I said yes, I’d be stupid given the results. It’s clear we still have a lot to figure out.” What stood out was also Aston Martin’s performance, managing to qualify for Q3 using only medium tyres: “That’s unusual. I don’t know if it’s related to their updates or the tyres, but they’ve made a huge step forward.”
Looking ahead to the race, Fred Vasseur cautiously pointed to Friday’s simulations: “Our race pace was very promising, but we know overtaking at Imola is difficult. It’s a bit like a second Monaco.” The team might therefore opt for aggressive strategies: “We’ll probably have to take some strategic risks, but we’ll see tomorrow.” – the French manager concluded.
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