Ferrari must maximse their package to beat McLaren, says Vasseur

Ferrari has had a strong start to the season, being the only non-Red Bull team to win a race in the past five races. Despite this, McLaren is hot on their heels. According to Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur, the difference is just a few tenths.

Car performance is down to the track

With a win in Australia and several podiums, Ferrari is having a better start to the season than last year. Despite this, McLaren is not far behind the Italians on race pace. McLaren driver Lando Norris finished second in the Chinese Grand Prix, while the Ferrari cars finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur says the difference between the two teams depends on maximising the car's performance on each circuit: "I think it’s a matter of a tenth or half a tenth. In Melbourne for example, after 60 laps we finished the race eight seconds in front. It’s more a matter of extracting the best of what we have."

According to Vasseur, performance depends specifically on the circuit. "It can be a bit track-related," said Vasseur. "I think it was very difficult to understand the tarmac [in China], also due to the format because we did a stint with soft on Friday morning and then we went to the race with medium and we didn’t do the medium before, we did one lap in qualifying."