The Scuderia Ferrari Team led by Fred Vasseur improved their initially underwhelming performance at the F1 Japanese GP. Following a far from ideal start to the season with China’s double disqualification and Australia’s average results, the team scored 18 points on Sunday.
Despite improvements, the SF-25’s pace was still lacking
Frustrated with the lack of speed of the SF-25, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc could not attack the frontrunners during the Japanese Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver merely maintained his fourth position, just missing out on his potentially first podium of the season. As for Lewis Hamilton, the British driver made up a single place early in the race, reaching the chequered flag in seventh position after passing Isack Hadjar.
Fred Vasseur: All cars on the grid are incredibly sensitive to dirty air
Speaking in his print media session, Ferrari Team principal Fred Vasseur contrasted the positive result of the Chinese Sprint race to the underwhelming one of the Japanese GP. Drawing insights from the Chinese Sprint race, the Frenchman emphasized how sensitive all the cars on the grid are to dirty air, including the SF-25.
“I think the car is very very sensitive to the clean air and the dirty air.
“As soon as you are behind someone, even when it’s 3 or 4 seconds, you start to struggle a little bit, to damage more the tyres, to lose consistency […].”
Qualifying on pole for the Sprint race in Shanghai, Hamilton enjoyed clean air throughout the Sprint race. This provided the 7-time World Champion with a significant advantage in securing his maiden Sprint victory with Ferrari. Last weekend, both Ferrari drivers found themselves stuck in dirty air at the Suzuka circuit, impeding their performance.
Vasseur further highlighted the overall lack of consistency when it comes to tyre management.
“I think from one session to the other one, depending on the gap with the car in front of you, that you have different results.
“Sometimes it’s quite shocking, even from stint to stint today.”
The team hoped to maximise chances with Sunday’s split tyre strategy
The French team principal reflected on the split tyre strategy, with Leclerc starting on medium tyres whereas Hamilton was on hard tyres. Vasseur explained that Ferrari lacked information at the Japanese GP and were “a bit blind”, failing to long stint either tyre compound prior to the race. They didn’t want to risk “put[ting] all the eggs in the same basket”.
Team principal Fred Vasseur however regretted that the post-race data was “quite difficult to read”.
Vasseur criticizes widespread resurfacing and calls for tyre changes to improve racing.
The Ferrari Team principal looked back on the past three races. Vasseur blames widespread resurfacing for the repeated one-stop races and hopes that tyres with increased degradation will remedy the situation.
“If we have resurfacing everywhere, we are killing the system.”
This year will be a qualifying championship according to Fred Vasseur.
When asked about the increased importance of Saturday’s qualifying for this year’s Championship, the Ferrari Team principal confirmed that “quali[fying] is always crucial to the performance”.
“It will be a quali[fying] Championship.”
