Ferrari’s hopes of toppling Max Verstappen at the Miami GP eventually fell short. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished in third and fourth position. The Ferrari duo were compromised by a combination of the Safety Car and turn 1 shenanigans.
VASSEUR: “UNLUCKY WITH THE SC, BUT THE PACE WAS THERE”
The surprise is that the victory went to Lando Norris, who was favoured by the neutralization, which allowed him to make his pit stop losing fewer seconds, but also able to show a remarkable race pace with a McLaren, which benefited from the package of updates brought to Florida. Speaking about the progress of the Woking team, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur complimented the British driver:
“We have been fighting with McLaren since the beginning of the season, in Melbourne, they were close to us. And every weekend, it’s like this. I want to congratulate Lando and McLaren, it’s an important step for him, it’s his first victory. We are all happy for him.”
Moving on to the analysis of Ferrari’s performance, Vasseur said:
“We had a good race. The pace was there, we managed to stay with Max for the whole race. We had a bit of bad luck with the Safety Car, but that’s how it went. We have to take the positive aspects; the pace was there, and we’ll start from scratch next weekend.”
BAD LUCK, BUT ALSO GOOD PERFORMANCE WITHOUT UPDATES
As mentioned, immediately at the first corner of the Miami GP, Ferrari’s race became uphill due to a risky manoeuvre by Perez’s Red Bull, which penalized Sainz above all, who slipped from second position to fourth: “The situation with Perez at the start for sure it wasn’t ideal.”
“If we look at the race, it was determined by the position on the track because it was very difficult to overtake. Carlos lost two positions in the first corners due to Perez’s attack, so it wasn’t the best start for him .”
The positive aspect for the French manager is that Ferrari remained close to Red Bull and McLaren. The team’s strong pace was despite being the only team without major upgrades:
“Overall, we had an excellent race. Even Carlos’ pace was exceptional and he was also unlucky with the Safety Car because he had pitted the lap before. We have to keep the positive aspects of this weekend, even though we don’t have any updates here in Miami. The pace was there throughout the weekend.”
THE WAIT FOR THE IMOLA UPDATES
As is known, in the next Emilia Romagna GP, the Ferrari SF-24 will also finally see its long-awaited update package debut. Vasseur tried to keep expectations low on the new features, underlining that updates alone do not always bring great progress:
“I’m sure that in Imola, we will have a better race by putting everything together. We know that many have brought updates to these races but we finished ahead, we are at the point of development of the car where if you bring something it’s not a matter of seconds, but of tenths.
“It’s not like a few years ago when everything brought 3-4 tenths. McLaren brought a huge package here, but it’s not like it was half a second faster than everyone .”
Yet McLaren itself marked the debut of the updated version of the MCL60 with the first victory since 2021:
“Without a doubt, we will be able to fight for the victory in Imola. But I believe there is a gap that varies from track to track and from compound to compound, which makes more of a difference than an update,” Vasseur added.
“We must focus on our job, which is making the most of what we have. The update that we will bring to Imola will certainly help. But it doesn’t all depend on that but also on the work we will do on the track.”
