Ferrari vs. McLaren: A Razor-Thin Margin of One Tenth

Ferrari and McLaren F1’s tight competition epitomizes the fierce battle for second in the F1 standings, separated by just a tenth.

Ferrari is involved in the battle for second place in the championship against McLaren F1. Fred Vasseur, the director of Scuderia, is convinced that his team is competing against Woking’s team, estimating the gap between the two teams at about a tenth.

“I think it’s a matter of a tenth or half a tenth,” Vasseur stated. “In Melbourne, for example, after 60 laps, we finished the race eight seconds ahead. It’s more about making the most of what we have.”

“And honestly, we’re talking about development. First of all, as a team, we need to make the most of what we have, and we didn’t do the job in China. It’s not that the situation changes radically from one weekend to another.”

“It could be related to the track or the tarmac. I think it was very difficult to understand the tarmac, also because of the format, as we did a stint with soft tires on Friday morning, then raced with medium tires, and we didn’t test the mediums before, we did a lap in qualifying.”

“This means that this kind of understanding of the situation, or rather approach to the situation, can make the difference in the end, because we are talking about a tenth, not half a second.”

Behind Red Bull, it all comes down to “details”

The Frenchman notes that in the group chasing Red Bull, there is no settled situation: “There’s no normal weekend. It’s the start of the season, so we’re lucky that everything is very, very close. Maybe Max is sometimes a bit faster.”

“But, as I said in China, we have a pack of six or seven cars within a tenth. This means that for details, you can go from hero to zero. And when you start from ninth place, the race is much more difficult because you have dirty air in the early laps, even if you are faster.”

“But fundamentally, even if you are faster, it’s hard to overtake because if you don’t have a big gap, you damage the tire during the first 10 laps and then you’re done.”

“I think it’s really about getting everything together. We haven’t had a perfect weekend on our side, but we’ve made too many mistakes collectively. And we know that in this group, if you don’t do the perfect job, you won’t be at the front.”