Ferrari Formula 1 boss Fred Vasseur admits that his team must do a “better job” and be consistent through a whole race weekend in the wake of a frustrating Singapore GP.
The red cars were fast on Friday, but the team lost its way on Saturday, with a Q3 mistake for Charles Leclerc and a crash for Carlos Sainz – both blamed on cold tyres – leaving them starting ninth and 10th on the grid.
They recovered to fifth and seventh in the race, but that was below what the SF-24 would have been capable of from better starting positions.
“It’s always good to finish the weekend on a positive tone, and honestly today, it was a very good race,” said Vasseur.
“It’s true that on the other hand you increase a little bit the frustration after a poor Saturday, when you have this kind of race.
“But I prefer to have a frustration on Sunday evening, after Saturday, with a good race, than a poor race. And you say, ‘Okay it was like this.’ I think it’s good to finish and to attack the three or four weeks break with a positive tone.”
Vasseur admitted that the team had got it wrong in qualifying.
“On Friday we were in better shape, and it means that we missed something during the weekend, it’s clear,” he said. “When you start in Singapore ninth and 10th, you know that we made something wrong on Saturday.
“But it’s not the Sunday that we have to blame something or someone. It’s more to do a better job on Saturday.
“I don’t want to blame something or someone, that it’s part of the game, and we have to be focused honestly to do a more consistent weekend.
“I think it’s true for everybody. When you are in this pack today, as soon as you will do a small mistake, it doesn’t matter if it’s quali or race, or even free practice now, it’s quite difficult to recover.”
Vasseur provide some interesting insight into the tyre temperature issues in Q3, which left Leclerc especially frustrated.
“I think the story had nothing to do with the blankets, the story is that when we exit from the pit that we were all playing a kind of a game, because nobody wanted to be first,” he noted.
“Nobody wanted to be last. We did a fake to release the car from the pit lane, and everybody was trying to copy the others.
“And then we stopped a little bit at the pit exit. And we recovered a large part of this, but it’s true that we arrived at Turn 2 slightly lower on tyre temp, but marginally.
“And again, we have one lap, you are chasing the last kph in Turn 1, because at the end of the day, when you are one hundredth behind the guy in front of you, that you have some regrets if you didn’t push.
“It is like it is. We have to take this, I discussed with Charles, and it’s part of the game.”
Vasseur insisted that both drivers showed good pace in the latter part of the race on the hard tyres.
“I’m not focused on the others,” he said. “But the last 25 laps, I think we did the same race time as Lando. Perhaps he was doing some push, cool, push to recharge the battery and to try the fastest lap, I didn’t follow.
“But at least we were into the pace, and its encouraging. But the target was not to match to Lando today, it was to come back to score points. And on this, I think we had a good recovery.”
He added: “The strict result of the weekend, is not the one expected, but the result of the Sunday is a good one. It’s a good race. We had a strong pace. Good start for Charles, Carlos was a little bit on the dirty side and a bit blocked, but then a good strategy, a good pit stop, with tyre management in the line of the last couple of events.
“And I think we can be pleased with this. Now we have a couple of weeks to prepare for the last six races, and to be ready power for Austin.”
