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Ferrari team boss points to major rival: 'We are closer to them'

Ferrari team boss points to major rival: 'We are closer to them'

07-03-2023 12:10 Last update: 13:15
9

GPblog.com

Ferrari had a very disappointing weekend in Bahrain. Where the Italians had previously hoped to have a shot at the world title, the reality turned out to be a battle with Aston Martin and Mercedes for the lowest step of the podium. Team boss Fred Vasseur looked back on the race weekend in Bahrain by speaking to GPblog and others.

To the surprise of many, the prancing horse was still able to make things very difficult for Red Bull in qualifying. Charles Leclerc finished three-tenths off Max Verstappen's pole time and could have been even faster if he did not want to save a set of rubber for the race. The Ferrari looked strong over one lap, but high tyre degradation hampered them in the race.

Customer team Haas, who sat at the back of the field, compete with a similar car and used several parts from Ferrari, such as the suspension and gearbox. The American racetrack also experienced a lot of tyre degradation. Yet Vasseur thinks that has nothing to do with Ferrari's concept.

"I'm sure that [it's not the concept] because I never experienced in my life a car able to be quick on one lap and for a concept issue to not be fast on the long stints. Now that it's, from my point of view, more a setup issue and tuning issue, that we have to understand what we are doing well, I don't know if it's about cooling or something like this, and to come back next week a bit stronger."

'Ferrari are closer to Red Bull than to Aston Martin'

Ferrari wanted a shot at the championship this season but appeared to be battling Aston Martin more than reigning world champion Red Bull. Who does Vasseur see as the big rival at the moment? "If you have a look at the first part of the race, I think we are closer to Red Bull than to Aston Martin.  But again, it's race one and we don't have to draw any conclusions. I think that Mercedes will wake up soon. We don't know what could happen next week. Next week will be a different story in Jeddah, with a different tarmac. Let's see after Jeddah if we have a better picture."

Positives for Vasseur

The Ferrari car was eating up its tyres quicker compared to rival Red Bull, who took less life of their tyres. Nevertheless, the Ferrari team boss saw plenty of positives to build on. "The fact that we're able to match them in quali, it's good news. The fact that Charles was able to speed them in the first team was also a good situation for us."

"It means that the pace difference at this stage came also from the tyre choice, but we were not able to do soft soft hard. It is like it is, that we have to, you know, the most difficult in my business is to be able to do a proper analysis of the situation, to know what is going well and what is going wrong and to try to get the best on the issues. Now that we have a better picture of the situation, we know exactly what we did this weekend and we have to make a step forward," Vasseur said.