Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur lamented the outfit’s catalogue of errors at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Italian team endured a torrid day in Hungary, slumping to a P7 and eighth place finish for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
The Scuderia’s problem’s were compounded by Leclerc’s five second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane and a slow pit stop.
Ferrari has scored a measly two podiums this season but have failed to deliver a top five finish during the last two races, a lacklustre return by their lofty standards.
Vasseur said: “But I think on our side, it’s much more the fact that we made too many mistakes from the beginning to the end, but it’s not just about the pitstop or the pit entry or the quali yesterday or the management of the tyres and so on.”
The Frenchman highlighted Ferrari’s poor qualifying performance as Sainz failed to secure a spot in Q3, starting the race in P11.
“It’s not the results that we were expecting coming to Budapest, but I think it was largely compromised yesterday after the quali with a P6 and P11,” said Vasseur when asked about how the race went for them.
“We had to take some risks at the start, starting [Sainz] with soft, it was a good choice, but we know also that after the start that we had to fit two set of hards, and it was quite tough.
“And on Charles’ side I think the race was probably much better because the pace was there, but it was largely compromised with the penalty and then an issue with the wheel gun.
“We lost another eight seconds on the pitstop I think, plus then the traffic. It would have been probably P5.”
Formula 1 trialled a new qualifying format in Budapest, which restricted the teams to just 11 sets of tyres instead of 13.
Vasseur said that the team struggled to maximise having less tyres and the challneges the new format provided.
“First, we need time to understand what we did right and wrong, because the format was different. It’s not so easy to analyse the perfect weekend, and you need to get all the results to be able to do retro engineering on this.
“At the end the potential was probably better than what we showed yesterday and then today at least with Charles we lost 20 seconds in the race.”
Vasseur was also queried on how he could rectify those errors ahead of future races: “I spent the last 35 years of my life on the pitwall and every single Monday of my career you have to do the list, and you have a long list of mistakes.
“Sometimes you can see it, sometimes not, but the job of the team principal is to do the list with team members and to fix it.
“I’m very open with you to say that we are going to make mistakes. But I think it’s true if you ask the question to Toto [Wolff].”
Ferrari are languishing down in fourth in the championship behind Aston Martin, the team boss said that qualifying needs to be an area of improvement in order for Ferrari to move forward.
“It’s not the results expected, for sure we were expecting much better. But it is what it is, and we have to work.
“The feeling is that in quali it’s very, very close behind Max, and level with Max sometimes. We have to improve but we are not that far away.
“On the race pace Red Bull is miles away from everybody. We know also that the quali results is crucial to be in the clean air.
“Every single car is very affected with the dirty air. As soon as you are starting P2 you are in a much better shape.”
