Leclerc’s fourth-place finish in Japan highlights Ferrari’s ongoing struggles, with Vasseur admitting a clear performance gap to the leading teams.
Despite maximizing every opportunity, Ferrari is still trailing behind the leaders.
Charles Leclerc finished fourth at the Japanese Grand Prix, but the Ferrari driver expressed frustration over the performance gap that continues to cost the team.
He remains particularly concerned about the team’s deficit to Red Bull and McLaren, especially after what he believed was a perfect weekend for Ferrari.
“It’s something, but the only positive this weekend is that we did everything we could. However, it highlights that there’s still work to do. Even though the balance we found on Friday was positive, it didn’t change our position today,” Leclerc told. He lamented the lack of pace, adding,
“We need more performance, and once we find it, I’m sure we’ll be able to challenge the cars in front. It’s not that much, but it’s hard to see that on a race like today. I think they had more in hand, but we maximized the weekend, so that’s a positive.”
When asked about his satisfaction with his best result of the year and Ferrari’s best result so far, the Monegasque driver was far from happy.
“I’m never satisfied unless I win, and we didn’t even make it onto the podium,” he said.
“It hurts to finish fourth when we did everything right, but that’s where we are today. When you’re in this situation, you have to maximize the weekend, which we did. But I hope we can find more performance.”
Lewis Hamilton was the only driver in the top 10 to gain positions compared to qualifying. Starting from 8th, he finished 7th, ahead of Isack Hadjar. He had attempted an alternative strategy with hard tires at the start.
“I did my best today. I was really behind compared to the cars ahead of me,” Hamilton said.
“I’m still not getting the best out of the tires.” He added, “We found an issue with the car that has been underperforming in the last races, so I hope that when we solve this problem, I’ll start getting better results. And always moving forward.”
Vasseur: Ferrari’s Performance Gap to the Best Is Clear
Fred Vasseur struggled to find satisfaction with Ferrari’s fourth-place finish in Japan, secured by Charles Leclerc. The race at Suzuka made it clear that Ferrari was not in a battle with McLaren F1 or Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, which claimed victory that day. However, it remains the team’s best result so far this season.
“It couldn’t have been worse; last time we were demoted,” said Vasseur. “In terms of operations, it was a good weekend with solid pit stops and strategy. But the gap we saw in qualifying — two-tenths, two-and-a-half-tenths behind — was confirmed today,” .
“We’re still about the same distance from Max, McLaren is hard to gauge, and we’re battling with Mercedes. That’s the situation as it stands. It’s up to us to extract the maximum from the car, which we didn’t do well this weekend.”
However, Vasseur remains hopeful for the rest of the season. “We need to stay positive. At this stage last year, we were six-tenths behind Max, and we ended up winning races. So, we mustn’t lose focus, and we need to keep the same approach and work as we did last year.”
The Scuderia is now on par with Mercedes, according to Vasseur: “We had the same pace as them. When we look clean, we can attack; otherwise, we need to manage the tires. Russell would attack for two laps, then have to ease off, and Charles was in tire management mode. But overall, our performance is similar to Mercedes.”
Vasseur hopes for a podium finish at either Bahrain or Jeddah: “We need to make it happen. Last year, it took us a few races to get everything in order, which isn’t ideal because we need to be ready from the start. But we progressed throughout the season, and we must keep that same constructive approach.”
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Vasseur Acknowledges Ferrari’s Clear Performance Gap in Japan Vasseur Acknowledges Ferrari’s Clear Performance Gap in Japan