Ferrari F1 boss Fred Vasseur questions two-stop rules and says Monaco Grand Prix offers a different kind of Formula 1 spectacle.
Fred Vasseur gave an overall positive assessment of the Monaco Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc finishing second and Lewis Hamilton fifth. However, the Ferrari team principal couldn’t help but feel that an even better result was within reach.
“I think the overall result is good. If someone had told me on Thursday that we’d finish second, I would have accepted it, especially after qualifying 11th and 12th in Imola,” Vasseur told Canal+.
“But we set the fastest times in FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, and Q2, and then missed the mark a bit in Q3.”
“We missed out on pole, and if we had started on pole today, I think we would have won. So there’s a bit of frustration, but finishing second is still good, and that’s part of the sport, so we’ll build on it going into next week.”
The Frenchman went into detail about how Saturday’s penalty ruined Hamilton’s Sunday:
“Yes, it would have kept him within Norris’s pit window, but we got stuck behind Alonso and lost the opportunity to prevent Norris from getting a free stop.”
“If we had started fourth on hard tires, we could have forced McLaren to extend their first stint. Lewis is very disappointed because he knows that starting fourth would have changed his whole weekend. But with the penalty, he started behind Hadjar and Alonso.”
“At the end of the first stint, he was already 20 seconds behind Verstappen and the others up front. I understand the frustration because, like Charles, he’s tying the whole weekend back to what happened yesterday, and that’s a fair analysis in Monaco.”
Asked about the mandatory two-stop strategy, Vasseur felt it was worth trying but doesn’t see it as a lasting solution:
“I don’t think it changes the result. Even with one stop, I don’t think Mercedes would have won today.”
“One or two stops, it’s the same. But two stops can create an opportunity to let a car run three seconds faster, and then do the opposite later. With only one stop, you can’t do that. So it’s good to try and to be bold, but we shouldn’t be stubborn about it either.”
“There will be an F1 Commission where we weigh the pros and cons of this decision. What I don’t like is that it allows someone to bet on a red flag, in this case, Verstappen.”
“Because of the big gap that had opened up, he was under no pressure at all. He could afford to go very slowly on track and run to the end as he did. And if there had been a red flag, he would have won, so that’s not real racing.”
He added that people need to accept that the spectacle in Monaco isn’t on Sunday:
“We have to accept that. Monaco happens once a year; it’s a special event for everyone in Formula 1, not just for the drivers, but for the teams and sponsors too. We all love coming here.”
The Frenchman is pleased with the excitement that qualifying in Monaco generates and refuses to underestimate the difficulty of racing in the Principality:
“Monaco qualifying is a unique event, unlike any other, it’s the best day of the F1 season, and we need to embrace that.”
“Up front, they were pushing hard, and completing 78 laps in those conditions, we saw Piastri hit the barrier at the end, I think it was an exceptional performance by the drivers, even when they weren’t pushing. That shouldn’t be underestimated. Even if there are no overtakes on the straights… to me, the drivers’ performance over 78 laps is outstanding.”
As with poor performances, Vasseur credits Ferrari’s resurgence this weekend to Pirelli tire management:
“When we perform, or don’t, it comes down to tire management. That’s been the case multiple times, and it’s all about tire usage.”
“We always feel like we’ve understood things by Sunday evening, only to be lost again the next Friday. Here, we took a different approach, focused more on that aspect, and it paid off. We needed a weekend where everything clicked, without any hiccups in performance management, and that gives us a solid foundation for Spain.”
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