Where did Ferrari lose vs McLaren? Vasseur: "I don't want to do the list..."
F1 News
Ferrari was 14 points shy of McLaren's final tally in the Constructors' championship, a loss that 'frustrates' its team boss, Frederic Vasseur, who does not "want to do the list" of where the Italian marquee lost points, since at the end of the day, it is his job "to minimise the losses".
Speaking to media including GPblog, in the aftermath of their defeat to McLaren in the Constructors' championship, Vasseur began: "I think if you are 80 or 100 points behind, you don't feel the frustration." At the flag in Abu Dhabi, only 14 points separated the Scuderia from their Woking-based rivals. "14 points that you have, at least tonight, I have tons of races in my mind where we lost 14 points this season."
Where does Vasseur think those points lie?
In hindsight, it is easy to look back and say 'this is where the war was lost', or 'Here we could have done better', that's why they say "hindsight is always 20/20." A straightforward blunt man such as the Ferrari Chief does not want to look back on the season, however, to see where the Maranello-based team dropped valuable points to longtime competitor McLaren.
"I don't want to do the list because about Canada we came back, [and] I think on paper Canada was a good one for us, and we came back from Canada with a double zero," said Vasseur regarding the Montreal race where Charles Leclerc suffered a reliability issue and had to DNF. Carlos Sainz made a mistake in the changing conditions experienced at the Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit, also resulting in a DNF for the Scuderia.
Vasseur takes Ferrari 2024 defeat to heart
For the Spanish GP, Ferrari was set to introduce a significant upgrade package that would see them close the gap to Red Bull and McLaren. However, the package resulted in lost lap time due to its effect on the SF-24, making it impossible for the drivers to keep the car under control, and it was quickly discarded. "This period, I think we lost something like 80 or 90 points on McLaren."
"And then you had a tough weekend like Baku, even if we did a P2 with Charles, (Sainz had contact with Sergio Perez which resulted in a DNF for both drivers, ed.) but I think we were in a position to do a much better job than only P2." Singapore is also on the Frenchman's mind as well, but in the end, as team boss, he can only take the loss on the chin: "But my job is also to try to minimize these losses," Vasseur concluded.