Ferrari team boss 'frustrated' with Leclerc after disappointing weekend

F1 News

Fred Vasseur disappointed with Ferrari's Austrian Grand Prix performance
2 July at 07:00
6
  • Toby Nixon
  • Editor

It was a difficult weekend for Ferrari all around at the Austrian Grand Prix. Since the Italian team scored a one-two finish in Monaco, they've consecutively had some difficult weekends. In Spain and Austria, Ferrari was the fourth fastest car on the grid, making them now slower than the fast-charging Mercedes team that is gaining ground on their third place in the constructors. Despite a Carlos Sainz podium, Vasseur told GPblog and others in the paddock that he was disappointed with how the weekend panned out. 

"Today was okay. We were convinced to have a tyre advantage at the end. To be able to come back on Russell on the last couple of laps. Unfortunately for us we were a little bit nowhere with the traffic. And we had some guys at the end of the second stint with a new set of tyres. They were lapped, but faster than us. But we were in the middle of this pack. It didn't run very well," Vasseur said when asked about Sainz's pace.

'We can be frustrated with Charles'

"When you try to summarise the weekend, I think we can be frustrated with Charles. We had the potential to do a much better weekend and to score many more points. But it is like it is now. We have to sit down to discuss this together. To see what we can improve. And it's one out of 24 and we will be back next week." Leclerc had a tough weekend. The Monegasque was unable to set a lap on his final qualifying run after an error, and a first-lap clash meant Leclerc was battling outside the points for the rest of the race, eventually finishing in 12th.

The Frenchman is looking ahead to the third leg of the triple header in Silverstone and hopes that Ferrari can continue to develop their car. "When you bring something, as the upgrades are now a bit less powerful than it was in the past, sometimes you have a deficit on the tuning of the car. And you need one or two weekends to be at the top of the upgrade. It's why the FP1 and the FP2 in Silverstone will be helpful." Vasseur concluded.