Vasseur: Ferrari’s F1 margin to Verstappen ‘a matter of tenths’

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur believes the margin it has to close to compete with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Formula 1 is now just “a matter of tenths”.

Leclerc once again emerged as Verstappen’s closest challenger over a single lap at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit with the same three-tenth deficit as one week ago.

However, a considerable brake problem in Bahrain prevented Leclerc from demonstrating his full potential, with Carlos Sainz ending within seconds of Sergio Perez.

Despite securing a front-row starting berth, Leclerc was dissatisfied with the balance of his SF-24 car on new rubber, contributing to him trialling two warm-up laps.

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With Leclerc voicing similar concerns last weekend, Vasseur has admitted Ferrari must begin to “put everything together” to have a chance of challenging Verstappen.

“We had good runs at the beginning of the session and the last one was also good,” Vasseur told Sky F1.

“In the middle, it’s always difficult because you don’t know in Jeddah if you have to do prep lap or if the scrub are better than the new.

“And it’s all the session on the edge, and I think he found the right balance at the end and the pace was good.

“Perhaps Max did a better job for sure that he was two or three-tenths faster and we have to put everything together if we want to fight with Max.”

Red Bull’s minor edge over a single lap in Bahrain translated into a crushing advantage in race trim that saw Verstappen triumph with a 22-second margin on Perez.

But the Frenchman reiterates that the Maranello squad has halved the deficit from 12 months ago and has urged the team to continue pushing for incremental gains.

“Max seems very fast this time too,” Vasseur continued. “If we look at the race simulation he did he was very fast.

“On the flying lap he was very fast, but we are not too far from him. It’s a question of tenths. Of course, over 60 laps it becomes a lot, but it’s a question of tenths.

“We need to be able to make those small steps forward that we were able to make last year to take it back. Last year we started one second behind and then we improved, coming to fight with him in some situations.

“This year we start in a better position and we will have to maintain the same approach and the same application to improve even in small details.

“We must continue to push, then we will see what the result will be.”

Vasseur also reserved praise for Oliver Bearman, who is embarking upon his F1 debut with Ferrari this weekend after Carlos Sainz was ruled out with appendicitis.

The Briton, 18, was 0.036 seconds adrift of beating compatriot Lewis Hamilton to a place in the pole position shootout despite receiving one practice hour in the car.

“It was a great session, but a great day from the beginning,” he said on Bearman. “We have to keep in mind that I called him, it was 2 p.m. That it was more than a very late call.

“He had to jump into the car and Jeddah, as you know, it’s not the easiest one. And that probably that you have Monaco and Baku at the same level.

“But overall, he did a very good day that he had to learn how to manage the pit stop, the start. And so we did everything this morning.

“The pace was there, that it was not an easy session with the red flag and so, but I think that he’s not going in Q3 for a couple of hundreds. But again, it was not… I don’t know, the result is always the target, but we knew that it would be difficult. I really want to have a clean weekend with him and it will be the target also tomorrow, to finish the race and to do it properly.”