Asked about rumored upgrades to the SF-24 that didn’t end up on the car in Austin, Frederic Vasseur said that the team would be “creative” in the timing of their installation, and erred on the side of caution for the United States Grand Prix—a caution that paid off with Charles Leclerc leading Carlos Sainz to a 1-2 finish for the Scuderia.
This is the Scuderia’s first 1-2 in the North American since 2006 when Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa dominated at Indianapolis.
Regarding the updates, Leclerc did have a different front wing this weekend to Sainz, but with very small tweaks to the upper flaps on it only, which is why it was not declared in the FIA documents.
“It’s not because we are not declaring something that we are not bringing something […] but it’s true also that if you have a look on the last two years, it’s quite often that when you are bringing something, that now we are speaking about hundreds or tenths of seconds.
“You are also struggling a bit more, sometimes, on the set-up, and it’s not obvious that you will have a step forward in terms of results more than performance.”
After mixed results in the Saturday sprint—Sainz moving from 5th to 2nd, but Leclerc going from 3rd to 4th—Vasseur said Ferrari “knew perfectly that today will be a different story” over the course of a full race distance.
“You have the flexibility on the strategy, and the fact that we were able to have a good consistency on the tyres and the tyre management will be probably a bigger advantage today than yesterday.”
Vasseur chalked up their performance on Sunday to simply getting the set-up right, as Leclerc made his way to the front at the first corne. The Ferraris maintained their pace throughout despite not having as good a qualifying run as they would have hoped.
Showing that excellent pace and gentleness on the tyres, Leclerc (stint 1) and Sainz (stint 2 after an undercut) eased away from Max Verstappen. As McLaren did not have the ultimate pace on mediums in the first 15-20 laps, Ferrari could completely control the race.
“I’m not sure if it’s related to the compound, I think it’s more the pace on one lap but it’s also a choice in terms of set-up.
“Austin is also a strange one because you have the first part very high speed, bumpy and the last part more low speed, smooth and you have to decide where you want to be competitive and the same for the race.”
Despite the rest of the field figuring out that balance more and more over the course of the weekend, Vasseur’s assessment was that “we kept the advantage and at least on the tyre deg, it’s a big advantage to be in good shape on the last part”.
Circuit of The Americas is a track that promotes good racing and overtaking, something Ferrari factored in when making their set-up decisions at the weekend.
“It was not the plan to start third and fourth but I would have preferred to start one and two but it is like it is.
“I think it was true also between Friday and Saturday that we had a better pace on the race pace and the long stint than on the quali.
“It’s one of those tracks, if you start third and fourth and you have a good pace you can still win the race.”
Vasseur knows as well as anyone, however, that this will not be every track they face as they chase McLaren and Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship.
“We have to keep the feet on the ground and to stay calm and each session is different and each race is different. It’s not because we are in a good shape this weekend that we will fly next week, but I prefer to win this weekend.”
The Frenchman upgrades will likely be coming in one of those upcoming weekends, but potentially not until the penultimate race at the Qatar Grand Prix.
“If we have good options […] we will do our best to bring something, but it will be probably more now for not Vegas, but Qatar.”
