Ferrari jumped Mercedes and Red Bull in the constructors into P2 after the European triple header, but team principal, Frédéric Vasseur, he wants the prancing horses to aim higher.
Before the triple header, Ferrari’s season prospects looked bleak. With a double DNF in China and consistent results that but the Maranello-based team as the fourth-fastest car, they were a far cry from their 2024 performance.
Both drivers had complained consistently over the balance and grip in the car, and the team’s biggest problem was tyre temperature, especially in prepping tyres for a push lap in qualifying.
Ferrari were suffering on Saturday, which bled into their struggles in having to fight further through the grid.
However, with consecutive podiums for Charles Leclerc in Monaco and Spain and a P4 for Hamilton in Imola, it felts as though Ferrari’s luck was turning. Vasseur spoke to F1TV about the progress they’ve made in the last three rounds.
He said, “I prefer to be second than fourth or fifth. Honestly, if you have a look, we were 50 or 60 points behind Mercedes and Red Bull after China, when we were disqualified, and now we are in front of them.”
“I think that over the last four or five events, we did a decent job.”
Still a way to go
Although second is better than fourth, it is still not as good as first, and Vasseur made it clear that the aim is to be winning races, which means closing the ever-growing gap to McLaren.
Vasseur told media, “But we also have to keep in mind that we are [here] because we want to win races, but we don’t want to be P2.”
“It means that we have to be focused on McLaren. I’m not speaking about the championship, but I’m speaking about pace. I think today we are not that far away with the pace on the first 40 laps.”
McLaren are currently 197 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors. A gap which seems near impossible to close.
Spanish GP
Half of the Ferrari garage was happy with the Spanish grand prix, while the other half rued another difficult race. Lewis Hamilton struggled for pace but was still on for a decent result until a late safety car left him vulnerable to the Mercedes and the Sauber of Nico Hülkenberg.
While Hamilton was downbeat and said he learnt nothing from the afternoon, but Vasseur wasn’t as pessimistic as the Brit.
He said, “I think [Hamilton] did 70% of the race in front of [George] Russell. I’m not sure that Russell said that the race was a disaster, but then we had an issue on the car in the last [stint], before the Safety Car, and the result is not good, but he did 45 laps in front of Russell.”
Leclerc on the other hand experienced a stroke of luck in the final safety car. With Max Verstappen leaving the pits with hard tyres on, which left Charles leclerc in an ideal situation to take the final step on the podium.
There were questions over Leclerc’s overtake on Verstappen, but the steward had no further investigation on the incident, with both drivers forgetting the incident.
Vasseur spoke in the incident and said, “I even didn’t notice that there was an incident, honestly, then with Sky Sports, we tried to have a look on the steering wheel position on the straight, and it was at zero. It’s not an incident.”
