Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz certified on the second row within the Bahrain season opener, behind the main Crimson Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
But when Ferrari’s one-lap tempo was encouraging, its race tempo was much less spectacular because it struggled to match Crimson Bull and even got here below risk from Aston Martin.
Leclerc retired from the race with a management electronics subject on the engine, whereas Sainz was overwhelmed to 3rd by Aston’s Fernando Alonso after he “cooked” the tyres attempting to maintain the man Spaniard behind.
Chatting with the press forward of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Vasseur is bullish that Ferrari has “mega room” for enchancment with its present bundle as a result of it did not get the automobile stability proper in Bahrain.
“We struggled a bit with the stability over the weekend, it signifies that we now have mega room for enhancements on this path with our bundle,” he defined.
“With what we had in Bahrain, I feel we had a variety of room for enchancment by way of driveability.
“A very powerful is to remain give attention to the present state of affairs to attempt to get one of the best from what we now have as we speak. And even when we’re bringing updates and we are going to enhance the state of affairs and the competitiveness of the bundle.
“Needless to say Bahrain shouldn’t be all the time very consultant. And second, we’re nonetheless on the early stage of the automobile.
“It signifies that we did three days of testing and the race in Bahrain, solely on one monitor, and we have to have a greater understanding of the automobile itself to attempt to get one of the best from the bundle we now have.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Photograph by: Erik Junius
After the race Sainz mentioned Ferrari’s extreme tyre put on ‘was as dangerous as final yr’, when the Scuderia labored onerous to mitigate the problems.
However when requested by Autosport about Sainz’ feedback, Vasseur mentioned its excessive degradation was the results of Bahrain’s notoriously tough tarmac mixed along with his drivers attempting to make up for an inherent lack of efficiency, with Sainz cooking the tyres attempting to maintain Alonso behind.
“A part of the reason is coming from Bahrain, as a result of it is very aggressive and doubtless that is growing all of the parameters,” Vasseur replied.
“And it is true additionally that if in case you have lack of tempo, you must push extra to remain into the utmost of your tempo and you might be damaging extra the whole lot.
“It signifies that I’d be rather more centered on the pure efficiency and pure potential than one thing else.”
With Ferrari bringing updates to Saudi Arabia, Vasseur expects the workforce to make a step ahead on Jeddah’s avenue structure, which has vastly totally different traits than the abrasive Sakhir circuit.
“For certain we won’t be happy with the state of affairs, and I need to do a step ahead. The traits of Jeddah are utterly totally different in comparison with the earlier one to Bahrain by way of grip, by way of rugosity, structure of the monitor and in order that it is utterly totally different story,” he added.
“Already it is going to go well with a bit bit extra to what we now have as we speak. After which we’ll additionally deliver some updates to Jeddah and I hope that we’ll do a step ahead.
“We had a transparent evaluation of what we did in Bahrain. For certain we now have a protracted record of issues that we now have to enhance.
“I hope that already in Jeddah we’ll be capable to have a primary response.”
