Vasseur sticks to design: 'Still tons of room for improvement'

Frederic Vasseur has made it clear that Ferrari will not be shaping a radical new design for the time being. To The Race, the Ferrari team boss explains that there is still so much room for improvement within the current design that it would not make sense to go in a completely new direction now.

Ferrari's start to the season has certainly not been anything to write home about. In the first race, Carlos Sainz was able to keep up, but Charles Leclerc retired due to a mysterious engine problem. In the second race, both cars stayed on track but had to settle for only sixth and seventh. In Australia, Sainz was once again in a good position, but a late-time penalty for the Spaniard and another Leclerc DNF meant the team left Australia empty-handed. The season so far has been dominated by reliability problems, high tyre wear, and the painful realisation that not only Red Bull but also Mercedes and Aston Martin are simply too fast for the Italians.

Vasseur does not yet want to go down a new path with Ferrari

To remedy the problems as much as possible, Ferrari will come up with a series of upgrades in the near future. These upgrades will focus on the base plate and aerodynamics, among other things, and should make the Ferrari significantly more competitive around the Barcelona Grand Prix. While that requires a critical look at the current state of the car, Vasseur is keen to stress that the core of the car remains unchanged.

"To do a new project during the season, to start from scratch, to do a new car with the cost cap first but also considering the restriction of the windtunnel time, I don’t want to say that it’s impossible but it’s very difficult," Vasseur explains. "Also, on our side we have the feeling – and I hope that we are right and we are going in the right direction – that we have still tonnes of room for improvement on the car. As long as we are still able to develop the car to get points on the aero, to get a better balance, to get a better stability, and so on, I think it makes sense to push in this direction."