Fred Vasseur has opened up about Ferrari falling short of expectations at Zandvoort, whether the second engine upgrade would allow them to fare better in qualifying in the remaining rounds of the 2026 F1 season, their key takeaway from the race weekend, and whether an overtake on George Russell was on the cards before the late VSC at the Dutch GP on Sunday.
How Ferrari’s race unfolded at Zandvoort
After setting the fifth-fastest time in a tricky qualifying session, Lewis Hamilton started the 72-lap race on the softest compound. He lost a position off the line and switched to a set of used soft tyres when Max Verstappen’s crash on the second lap triggered a red flag.
The Brit eventually boxed for the hard compound at the end of Lap 25 and re-emerged into clean air in sixth place. Upon overtaking Oscar Piastri on Lap 35, he found himself chasing his own teammate.
With Charles Leclerc questioning the timing of his pit stop and hesitating to come in, Hamilton voiced his frustration over the waste of time. He ultimately extended his stint, capitalised on a cheap pit stop when Esteban Ocon brought out the VSC, and scored 12 points.
Meanwhile, Leclerc got off the line really well on Sunday from sixth on the grid and moved up to fourth. However, he dropped to fifth at the restart, despite bolting on a set of fresh soft tyres.
The Monégasque dived into the pits on Lap 22 and swapped the softs for the medium compound. On Lap 34, he pulled off a superb move through Turns 1 to 3 to take fourth place from Piastri.
With Ferrari failing to undercut Russell yet again, Leclerc, who clearly wanted to extend his stint, reluctantly boxed at the end of Lap 43. Following a fairly slow stop, he returned to the track in P6 on hard tyres.
As the Italian team double-stacked the cars under the VSC on Lap 55, making an extra stop meant that Leclerc rejoined the track in P5 behind Hamilton. Nonetheless, he narrowed the 7-second gap to just 0.503 seconds at the chequered flag.
Vasseur on why Ferrari did not fare better at the 2026 Dutch GP
Speaking in a print media session after the F1 race, Fred Vasseur reflected on whether Ferrari had underperformed at the 2026 Dutch GP, despite introducing an upgrade package with 5 updated components.
The Frenchman claimed that the answer was not straightforward and explained how missing the mark in qualifying and poor execution during the race had resulted in their strong pace going to waste.
Noting Leclerc’s superb first launch from P6 on a set of soft tyres, Vasseur also drew attention to how he lost a position at the restart to Piastri, who was sporting the hardest compound at the time. He remarked that this outcome was surprising and further admitted that the considerably slower pit stop the Monégasque endured on Lap 22 was detrimental to his race.
“Yes and no. I think the pace this weekend was good, at least in true pace and true potential.
“But if we missed something today, this weekend, it’s more the quali first. Not in terms of Sprint quali, but in quali we had a poor preparation, out-lap, and so on, and we did it twice.
“And the execution today was not that good because we had a very strong start in the first start. The second start, we lost position with soft compared to some hard competitor, and this was unexpected.
“And then we had a poor pit stop, and it was difficult. But the pace itself was decent. It’s not the issue at all today.”
Whether the second upgraded engine would help Ferrari in qualifying
In terms of whether the second engine upgrade under the ADUO system would enable Ferrari to close down the gap in qualifying, Fred Vasseur conceded that boasting a better car by every measure is always advantageous.
The 58-year-old mentioned how the SF-26 had performed better in qualifying during the Austrian GP weekend and claimed that their underperformance over a flying lap at Zandvoort was not representative of their true one-lap pace this season.
Touching on how the approach to out-lap preparation and tyre management differs in qualifying relative to the race, Vasseur reckoned that their execution was better in the Sprint format at the 2026 Dutch GP. He admitted that it was challenging for them to achieve similar results during the Grand Prix qualifying in colder conditions.
“For sure it’s always better to have better aero, better suspension, better engine. It’s always helping.
“But I think if we missed something in quali […] it was not true all the season. We had some races like Spielberg where we did a better job in quali than in the race. We are on the front row, we are 2nd and 3rd, and we struggled a bit more in the race.
“The issue is that in quali, it’s a lot about the out-lap preparation, tyre management. But it’s a different approach with the tyre management in quali than in the race. We can be good on one side and not on the other one, looking over one weekend to the other.
“It means that this weekend I think we had a decent approach for the Sprint quali. It was a bit more difficult yesterday [on Saturday] with cold conditions.”
Vasseur discusses what Ferrari learned from the 2026 Dutch GP weekend
Elaborating on the troubles Hamilton had faced on his final out-lap in SQ3, Fred Vasseur underlined how tight the gaps were over a single lap at Zandvoort.
The Ferrari Team Principal also asserted how crucial nailing the out-lap is for every team on the grid and pondered whether their decision to save a set in Q2 was the right one.
Reiterating how Saturday’s outcome didn’t reflect their true potential, Vasseur stated that their primary takeaway from the 2026 Dutch GP weekend is that they have to improve their consistency going forward so far as their execution is concerned.
“And it’s so tight that in the Sprint quali you have, remind me once again, 4 cars in six hundredths of a second.
“It means that for details on the out-lap that you saw Lewis [Hamilton] on the first day he has to struggle a little bit after Turn 10 because he had 2 or 3 cars in front of him. And he lost Turn 1, which cost him 2 or 3 tenths. In this case, you are losing 4 positions and it’s becoming a poor quali.
“It’s true for us but it’s true for everybody that you have to put a lot of effort in the preparation in the out-lap. We made some choices yesterday to save one set. We did one set less in Q2, but it was not the right call.
“I think if we have to learn something from the weekend, it’s not about the pure potential. I think it’s more about the execution these two days. We were able to be there in terms of performance at some stages of the weekend, but you have to be there always.”
If tyre preparation was difficult even during the race
With regard to Leclerc losing a position at the restart despite being on the softest compound and whether tyre preparation posed a challenge even during Sunday’s race, Fred Vasseur clarified that the 9-time race winner had experienced some wheelspin off the line.
Restating how fantastic Leclerc’s initial launch at the 2026 Dutch GP was, Vasseur admitted that they had expected him to gain a couple of more positions when the action resumed after the red flag period. Furthermore, he reckoned that stewing in Piastri’s dirty air in the first half had significantly compromised the 28-year-old’s momentum in the race.
“No, no. I didn’t have a look on the data of the start. But I think it was more wheelspin than something else.
“For sure you want to be aggressive. The first start in soft against medium was good that we were able to make two positions.
“I was expecting to have the same jump on the second start, but it was the opposite. In this situation, you are behind Piastri with hard, and you are losing edges in the first 10 laps. And it’s becoming much more difficult.”
Vasseur weighs in on whether overtaking Russell was possible without the late VSC at the 2026 Dutch GP
Asked whether he believed that both Ferrari drivers would’ve overtaken Russell without the late VSC at the 2026 Dutch GP, Fred Vasseur surmised that having a couple of additional laps in green flag conditions would’ve been beneficial since Hamilton was right on the 7-time race winner’s gearbox before the intervention.
“I didn’t have the crystal ball on the pit wall. For sure, it’s better to have two laps more than two laps less. We were not far away to do it the lap before the VSC.”
With respect to whether he was surprised that Russell had swapped positions with Antonelli on Lap 66, the Frenchman pointed out how the championship leader held a large tyre delta advantage over the Brit, who hadn’t pitted under the VSC.
“To swap, basically, it was not only to swap because there was a huge delta pace at this stage.”
