Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
In his first year as Scuderia Ferrari team principal, Vasseur has led the team to fourth place in the Constructors’ Standings. They’re just 24 points behind Aston Martin, and have a strong 98-point lead ahead of the improved McLarens. This Formula 1 season is all to play for behind Red Bull.
Vasseur was pleased that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz started in 4th and 5th respectively at Silverstone.
Due to their successful qualifying performances, the team “had the feeling that we could have done a much better job” than their finishing results from Sunday’s race. Both drivers finished within the top ten, scoring important points for the team, with no critical problems or DNFs throughout their race.
With both drivers dropping five places in the race, Vasseur was adamant that the team “can’t be happy finishing P9, P10.”
In preparation for Sunday, the team’s time was cut short due to an electrical problem with Leclerc’s car, causing him to miss practice session 2 on Friday.
As “Charles was stuck in the garage”, the team only managed to gather data on the soft tyre compound during the long runs in second practice, and it was a big struggle for Carlos Sainz.
Discussing the team’s tyre management, Vasseur conceded “we were a bit scared with the deg after the first races of the season”, but he then added that they were “far too conservative on the tyre management, and we didn’t push enough” at Silverstone, whilst also getting “a bit unlucky with the safety car.”
Sainz was moved onto the hard compound tyre on lap 27 of the race before the safety car had been deployed. He claimed that he was ‘50-50’ under the safety car about boxing, and he left the decision to pit or stay out solely to the team.
Vasseur asserted that “in this situation, the key point is the deg of the tyres because you can run all the simulation in the world, and we are doing that in parallel.
Sainz had briefly set a fastest lap of the race on the hards and was looking set to pass Leclerc before the safety car. Nonetheless, Ferrari couldn’t be sure about his tyres were doing.
“The factor that is difficult to assess at this stage of the race is if the driver is pushing a lot or not with the lap time. And probably we are too shy.
“I think that for Carlos it was the right call.”
Leclerc made an early pit stop on lap 19, during an on-track battle with Mercedes driver George Russell, getting rid his medium tyres for a set of the hard compound.
Unlike his teammate, the Monegasque pitted behind the safety car for fresh mediums. He would overtake the Spaniard with 9 laps to go.
Retrospectively, the decision to use the soft compound tyre for the second stint and not boxing early would have led to a better result.
The Ferrari team principal admits he would have changed things if he had the time back.
“We were fighting with Russell at this stage, and we were scared with the deg at the end, and we decided to pit early. But if we had to do it again, I wouldn’t do it.
“After the race, it’s quite easy to say that we would have to extend and to push more on the tyres.
“I think where we lost the most is not that at this stage of the race, it’s when we put the hard with Charles. We did something like 10 or 12 laps before the safety car, and he had zero deg. He could have pushed much more.
“It was a misunderstanding on the deg. This is coming from Friday, not from the race today.”
