“It’s not the result we expected coming here to Budapest”. Thus begins Frederic Vasseur in the traditional post-Grand Prix press conference. Ferrari closes a weekend in which it played the role of fourth force, despite the previous day the Budapest track was considered favorable to the characteristics of the SF-23. Pit-stop problems and penalties cost Charles Leclerc precious seconds and points, but according to the Team Principal the errors also concern the set-up and the lack of expression of the car’s potential.
The strategies
Ferrari’s seventh and eighth places in Budapest partly stem from difficulties in qualifying. In fact, the SF-23 is too sensitive to the dirty air encountered traveling in the slipstream, even more than its direct rivals. “The qualifying result is crucial for traveling in clean airVasseur commented. “All cars suffer from dirty air, which also damages the tyres. If you can start second, you’re in much better shape. Just look at what Norris did.”
“The weekend was strongly conditioned by the sixth and eleventh place in qualifying”, continues the Team Principal. “By starting eleventh we had to take risks at the start, starting with the soft tyres. It was a good choice, but we also knew that after that we would have to mount two sets of hard and it was difficult. As for Charles, the race was better. The pace was there, but the result was conditioned by the penalty and the problem with the pistol when changing tyres, losing eight seconds plus those due to traffic. We could have been fifth. There is the feeling of a missed opportunity”.
The number one on the Ferrari wall then explains the decision to stop the Monegasque first at the second tire change, favoring him over Carlos Sainz: “It was the best way to protect the team result. Considering that Carlos had to start on the softs and looking at tire wear, Leclerc had the potential to finish 20 seconds in front at the end of the race. He means that the decision was right. Before the call though, no one can predict whether there will be a gun problem or a penalty. It’s always easy to look back on the race after the checkered flag.”
Too many mistakes
The Team Principal’s comment at the Hungarian Grand Prix follows that of Silverstone, when Vasseur spoke of a set-up that was not perfectly optimized and unexpressed potential: “We need time to understand what we did right and wrong, because the format of the weekend was different. It’s not easy to simulate the perfect weekend, first you have to analyze everything. For our part, I think that we made too many mistakes from start to finish”.
“This doesn’t just concern the pit stop problem, the penalty at the pit lane entry, yesterday’s qualifying or tire management. Overall, I think the potential in qualifying was better than what we showed. In the race then, with Leclerc we have lost twenty seconds”. However, despite the set-up imperfections, Vasseur looks to the next round of Spa with optimism. The Sprint Race format will return to Belgium, which means frozen set-ups after just one session of free practice: “The format will be different, but generally we have done better on the weekends with the Sprint. In Baku and in Austria, where we only had one free test session, we did well”.
The run-up to Red Bull continues
In Budapest, pole position went to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, at the end of an extremely compact qualifying session, followed however by a race in which Verstappen triumphed with a 30-second margin. “It’s been like this since the beginning of the season”, commented Vasseur. “In qualifying we are 0.2-0.3% behind, while in the race the gap is bigger, even 0.7%. It is like this for everyone, even for Mercedes. In general it is the Red Bull that has the best performance in the race rather than the rest of the group slowing down. Maybe we saw it less in Austria, but it was a constant throughout the season.”
“It’s not about looking at Red Bull and thinking about what to do to catch up with them. You have to work on yourself. We are developing every area, trying to improve the aerodynamics, the suspension and everything we can. One important thing though is that, between porpoising and all, it’s not when you bring updates that you take a big leap forward. We brought an important package of developments to Barcelona, but we didn’t get any better until the following week. Alfa Romeo brought something to Silverstone and then they did a great job this weekend, at least in qualifying. It means that it’s not just a question of the package, but also of understand the updates”.
In defining Red Bull’s supremacy, Toto Wolff used the analogy as if Formula 2 teams were trying to catch up with a Formula 1 car. But Vasseur doesn’t want to push such a comparison. “Red Bull is in front, but the feeling is the same as when Mercedes won until a couple of years ago. The most important thing is to stay focused on us, try to make the most of what we have, minimize mistakes and do a better job.” However, like the Mercedes Team Principal, the Ferrari one also points out the difficulty of reaching the level of rivals under a budget cap and limited tests: “Everyone is getting better. However, with these regulations and the cost cap, we improve less than in the past”. Precisely on the subject of the budget cap, Vasseur closes with a comment on the rumored infringements in 2022: “When you establish a rule, I think it should be respected”.
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