Despite McLaren’s early success, Fred believes Ferrari hasn’t reached peak pace and the fight for dominance is far from over.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is keeping a cool head despite McLaren’s strong start to the Formula 1 season, including a dominant one-two finish in Shanghai. While McLaren has impressed, Vasseur believes the championship picture is far from complete.
“There were a lot of positives this weekend,” said Vasseur after the Chinese Grand Prix. “We took pole, Lewis [Hamilton] won, and Charles [Leclerc] had a great race pace.”
Still, he admits Ferrari hasn’t fully unlocked the potential of its SF-25. “There are also negatives—like how hard it is to understand Lewis’ race pace or the performance we showed at the end of qualifying. We’re still right on the edge, trying to extract everything from the car and the team. That’s where we need to step up.”
Vasseur emphasizes that it’s too early to draw hard conclusions about the pecking order. “Honestly, I still can’t clearly read where everyone stands. If you looked at things after FP2 in Melbourne, we looked strong. After the Sprint on Saturday, we were on top. Then just two hours later, we were struggling again. It’s all still evolving.”
Ferrari trails McLaren for now, but Vasseur draws a parallel with Red Bull’s early 2024 dominance. “The gap to McLaren is about the same as what we had to Red Bull last year when they started with back-to-back one-twos. If you had asked me after race two last year whether Red Bull would be champions by June, that would’ve seemed logical. But we’ve seen how fast things can change.”
“So yes, McLaren is in great form. Their pace is strong. They’ve clearly made progress. But this championship is far from over.”
He sees Ferrari just on the brink of a breakthrough: “We’re a little behind McLaren, sure—but we’re really close to getting everything out of the car. Charles showed that with his race performance.”
According to Vasseur, this constant fluctuation is true across the grid. “Look at Piastri and Norris—sometimes the race pace flips compared to qualifying. Even Max [Verstappen] has had tough moments during races. Everyone’s pushing the limit, and the margins are tiny.”
Looking ahead, Vasseur isn’t making any big predictions. “I expect a strong weekend in the Middle East. Japan will be a whole different challenge—new track, colder weather, different surfaces. But after five races, we’ll have a much clearer picture of the real pecking order.”
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