Schumacher sees tremendously bad Ferrrari: 'They don't know the cause'
F1 News
Ferrari had a bad weekend in 2023, and not for the first time this year. In qualifying, the SF-23 had decent speed in the hands of Carlos Sainz, but race pace was once again poor at Ferrari, but Ralf Schumacher thinks Frederic Vasseur should be given some more time.
Charles Leclerc had a dramatic weekend in Spain, as the Monegasque driver was eliminated in qualifying as early as Q1 due to potential problems with the car. In the race, Leclerc got no further than P11. Sainz was still second in qualifying but was clearly slower than the Mercedes driver in the race, and dropped to P5 with this lack of speed.
Schumacher sees bad Ferrari
Schumacher sees that things are not going well at the Scuderia. "The biggest problem is Ferrari. Team boss Fred Vasseur seemed at my wit's end. When I asked him how long it would take Ferrari to catch up to the top, his reply was: 'First we have to identify the problem, then we can say how long it will take'. They don't really know what the cause is, they have had the problem for a year that the tyres wear out too fast and apart from qualifying they were just too slow in Barcelona," the German wrote in his column at Sky Sports.
'Need to give Vasseur more time'
Despite the poor performance, the former Formula 1 driver does not think the brand-new Ferrari team boss should be shown the door right away. "Vasseur has only been in office for a few months, it just takes time and you have to give him that. He is busy bringing new people into the team. It may take some time before they all start working and this work emerges."