Charles Leclerc arrived in Azerbaijan full of confidence having won last time out in Monza. The Monegasque racer was well in contention to win in Baku as well but instead Oscar Piastri claimed his second victory of the season. Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur reflected post-race as to what prevented victory for his team.
Leclerc’s pace had seen him build up a six-second lead in clean air but a slow in-lap as well as a slow out lap when he pitted would be enough to see Piastri gain enough time, utilise DRS and take the lead with a blistering late brake overtake into the first corner. As such, pole-sitter Leclerc once again failed to win the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix despite controlling the opening stint. Vasseur was asked post-race as to where his team lost the race seeing how they seemed to have the quickest car on track.
“I think we lost probably a little bit in the in-lap that we can consider that it would have been better to pit one lap before.” explained Vasseur. “But it’s a different story because it was the plan to make the gap and to pit the lap after. We were a bit shy on the out-lap. It’s clearly in the out-lap that we lost the most compared to Piastri.”
Not only this but Leclerc’s pace was also impacted by Lando Norris making it difficult for Leclerc to get by. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said that he thinks: “50% of Oscar’s victory today is shared with Lando.” but such gamesmanship is no issue for Vasseur as he remarked: “Yeah, but that’s life. It’s not… We can’t ask Lando to let us go, that we have to consider this. It’s not a racing incident, it’s a racing situation.”
Once Leclerc fell behind Piastri it seemed as though it would only be a matter of time before the Ferrari man would deploy DRS and reclaim the lead – but that never came to be. Vasseur put this down to the fact that although his driver probably had better pace than Piastri, being behind in dirty air for 30 laps was too damaging to the tyres.
“The front is in the dirty air and you are sliding a bit more.” explained the Frenchman. “And after 25 laps, you are starting to degrade more than the guy in front of you.”
Nevertheless, Ferrari have closed the gap to Red Bull in the constructors’ standings and new Championship leaders McLaren are only 51 points in front of the Scuderia. With that in mind, Vasseur was asked as to whether it is a result of new upgrades or tweaking what the team already had.
“Both. I think it’s true for us, but it’s true for everybody that each single upgrade that we want to bring on the car, we are really on the edge of the performance. We have to pay attention, but we can’t stay like we are, because everybody is pushing, developing, and even if it’s difficult, if you have a look on the grid of Monza, this one was probably a bit different, but in Monza we had five cars in one tenth.”
The closeness of the field is very clear to see and Ferrai have been very competitive in Monza and Baku and with Singapore likely to produce more of the same the trend should continue. Obviously, time will tell if the pace is the same in Mexico and Brazil for Ferrari to really be in the running but Vasseur is taking things one race at a time.
“The race after Singapore, we’ll have a break between Singapore and Austin. We’ll have time to discuss about Austin, but first it’s Singapore, and I want to have a good result in Singapore, as we did last year to fight our opposition. We are in a good trend, and we have to continue like this to score more points than today for sure. But the pace was there all the weekend, from the first lap of FP1 to the end of the race, this is the most important. If we can have perhaps more points next week, but the same pace, it would be a good step forward.”
The man steering the ship at Ferrari did also highlight how even though Singapore has similar corners to Baku, the circuit requires much more downforce. Therefore, there is also every chance that the situation could be different next weekend. A point supported by the fact that Monza, Spa and Budapest all saw six or seven cars at the top of the timings within one tenth or a tenth and half of a second through the spread.
“Classification is probably linked to the upgrades that we are bringing, or to the characteristic of the track, and I think it’s more the characteristic of the track than something else.” admitted Vasseur. “It will be up and down until the end of the season, but what is important is to – perhaps that we felt today – is to win when you are in a good shape, but also to score good points when you are not, because that will be up and down until the end of the season, and it’s always important to score good points when you are not in a good shape.”
Ferrari missed out on points in Canada, UK and Austria this year and Vasseur admitted that this has probably cost his team a lot. However, the upward trajectory gives reason to be hopeful for the Tifosi.
“We are back to fight for the pole position each weekend, to fight for the win, and we have still 300 points on the table until the end.” declared the 56-year-old team boss. “I think something like this, that everything is possible, and it will be a long fight, and today didn’t turn in the direction, but we will have a better weekend.”
