Vasseur ahead of United States GP: 'Ẃe had to pay a high price'

It was quite a setback, the last Grand Prix in Qatar. Carlos Sainz, the man in form at Ferrari and responsible for the only win by a car not owned by Red Bull Racing, could not even start in Qatar. This created hard work for the Italian team to avoid similar problems in the future.

Ferrari were already close in Italy, but it was only in Singapore when they won. On a day when Red Bull had an off-day, there was a victory for Sainz. All the more frustrating was that the Italians also had to experience the total other side of the coin one race later. An hour before the race in Qatar was due to start, a problem in the fuel supply was discovered. Even before the Spaniard had driven a metre, the Grand Prix was over for him.

'Ferrari needs to get back to level Singapore

On that final, frustrating night in Qatar, team boss Fred Vasseur looks back once more from America. "We come to Austin off the back of a race where we paid a high price for a reliability problem on Carlos’ car, which meant there was only one SF-23 on the grid. Since then, we have been working hard to ensure that a similar situation does not reoccur. We must return to the level of execution demonstrated in Singapore and Japan, because that’s the only way to optimise our package so that Charles and Carlos can get the most out of it."

The 2023 season is slowly approaching its conclusion, but Vasseur realises there are tough weeks ahead. "We are about to tackle a very demanding Grand Prix triple-header, which actually involves five races in three weekends, as there are two Sprints. All team members, including the drivers, will have to be on top of their game throughout, in order to make the most of any opportunities that present themselves."