F1 News
Vasseur sees a fragile hierarchy in F1: 'All teams are on the edge'
In the end it's been an abyssmal start to Ferrari's season, after two lowly results in Australia, the team walk away with two disqualifications from Sunday and for some comfort, a sprint win on Saturday. The Scuderia's team principal, Frederic Vasseur claims there's more performance to be found, but also sees that consistency is hard to come by these days in Formula One, with 'everybody being on the edge' to extract their cars' full performance.
So all in all, Vasseur and his team leave Shanghai with a bittersweet aftertast following a complex race weekend where Lewis Hamilton claimed his first pole and win for Ferrari, albeit sprint ones, and where his teammate, Charles Leclerc showed remarkable pace even we his front wing's left endplate missing after making contact with his teammate.
"It's mixed feelings because we had very good points during the weekend. The pole of Lewis, the win of Lewis the race pace of Charles today and [a] journey a bit more difficult, the quali yesterday, the race of Lewis today," said Vasseur - who was still to learn of his drivers' disqualifications from the official results of the race in China - to Viaplay following the race at the Shanghai International Circuit.
'Everybody's on the edge' to get the best out of the car
Vasseur then describes the reason behind the very fragile state to the hierarchy in F1. "I have the feeling that we are a bit behind McLaren, probably, but really on the edge to extract the best of the car or not," explained the Frenchman the reason why the pecking order has been shifting from session to session since the Formula One season started in Australia.
"I think it's true for us but my feeling is that it's true for everybody, that if you have a look at [Oscar] Piastri or [Lando] Norris [from] yesterday to today, it's the opposite [performance]. Max was struggling in the race at one stage and he came back. I have the feeling that it's the same story for everybody and we are all really on the edge," said Vasseur.
Looking to Japan, the Ferrari team principal refrains from making any sort of prediction and says there's ways to go yet before having a defined hierarchy in F1. "I expect to have a good weekend in the middle first. Japan will be a different story. We are covering all the different layouts, tarmac, temperature. Japan will be probably very cold before [we] go to Jeddah and Bahrain. But I think at least after the five firsts, we will have a good picture," concluded Vasseur.