Vasseur: This is what Ferrari needs to make up two tenths on Red Bull
General
Ferrari finished second in the constructors' world championship last season. Mattia Binotto left and Frederic Vasseur took up his position. The objective was clear: fight for World Championship titles. The conclusion after the first half of the season: once again a P2 is the highest achievable and Red Bull Racing has slipped even further. Vasseur talks about it himself.
There were only three podium finishes in 12 races for the SF23, all for Charles Leclerc. What does the formation from Maranello still want to achieve in the second half of the season? When can one speak of a successful second half of the season? After all, the title seems out of sight.
Ferrari after the summer break
"For sure, if you have a look at the numbers, it's quite difficult to imagine that we could be champions in the Team and Driver Championships," Vasseur agrees to GPblog.com and others. "But we need to keep the same mindset to try to get the best out of every single weekend, not to be focused on the Championship."
Ferrari is currently fourth in the constructors' championship. Finishing there would be a major disappointment and so places need to be gained against Mercedes and Aston Martin. However, Vasseur explains that the focus is mainly on improving their own car. The results should then come naturally.
"We have to improve the package, but we have also to improve what we are doing on track and to try to get the best from the package that we have. It's where we have to be focused. I don't want to fix a target to say that we have to do this or this. As long as we have room for improvement, we have to be 100% focused on this one. It's clear that on every single topic and every single pillar of the performance, we have to make a step forward."
Gap to Red Bull
In the first half of the 2022 season, Ferrari and Red Bull were evenly matched, but then the Austrians pulled away hard. Ferrari's hope - and perhaps expectation - was that the gap would narrow again after that because Red Bull also faces punishment for exceeding the budget cap. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.
Vasseur is asked how it is possible that the RB19 is so much than all the other cars on the grid? "I'm not sure that they have an area where they are much better than someone else. It's not about the concept or something like this. I think it's everywhere they are out-performing on every single pillar of the performance. Drivers, engine, chassis, aero, suspension, strategy. It's where we have to improve."
Ferrari looks at Red Bull, but: "I think it would be a mistake to say, ok, they are much better than us in this area. Let's be full push on this one. We have to try to get the best from what we have in every single area. And to do a small step everywhere. We are speaking about 2-tenths. It's not 0.2s in aero, I think it's more one hundred times 0.002s or ten times 0.02s," said the French team boss.