F1 News

fred vasseur on ferrari weaknesses at the austrian grand prix

Vasseur points out multiple weakneesses for Ferrari in Austria

28 June at 20:17
  • Olly Darcy
  • Editor

After the highs of victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, the last three race weekends have been full of lows at Ferrari. A double DNF at the Canadian Grand Prix started the three-race span in the worst possible way, which was then backed up by a P5 and P6 by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, respectively, at the Spanish Grand Prix. Now, after Friday's sprint qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix, the Scuderia could only muster a fifth and a tenth place, and team boss Fred Vasseur is not too confident about their chances.

Sainz was able to find himself in P5, while a mechanical failure meant Leclerc could not set a time in the final sprint qualifying session, meaning he will start the shorter sprint race from P10.

After the Italian team brought upgrades to their car and showed its capability by taking a dominant Monaco Grand Prix victory, there were many thinking they could change for the constructors once again. However, they have not been able to find that pace and have not looked like challenging for a podium since the race in the principality. Team principal Vasseur spoke about the sprint qualifying results from his team and cited some weaknesses with the SF-24 that may hinder their chances around the Red Bull Ring.

Vasseur says the cars "bouncing" cost "time" during qualifying

"We are obviously disappointed to have one car in P5 and the other in P10," started the Frenchman. "We need to look at our performance on the Soft tyre, since on the Medium it was ok and we were in the fight with Mercedes and McLaren. We also need to work on the bouncing the cars experienced in the final two quick corners because it’s costing us a bit of time."

With the new upgrades, there would have been hope that these weaknesses hindering Ferrari would have gone, but that does not seem to be the case. Even so, Vasseur will be hoping that the race pace of the Prancing Horse will be more consistent than their qualifying pace.

"For tomorrow in the Sprint, there is only one strategy and that is to push," concluded the Ferrari team boss. "There is no mandatory pit stop for such a short race, so all we can do is push hard. We want to score good points with Carlos and bring home some more with Charles."