Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has urged the team to remain “calm” as he blamed its lacklustre speed in the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix on the track characteristics.
The Italian marque aimed to rebound from a disastrous double retirement in Canada with a seismic upgrade package accelerated through to Barcelona last weekend.
But Ferrari was unable to trouble its immediate competitors under all conditions, starting and finishing in fifth and sixth places with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Like in China, Vasseur contends that Ferrari’s overall race result in Spain was down to not optimising the SF-24 on a single lap and coming up short in narrow margins.
Vasseur remains unperturbed about Ferrari’s recent slump as he cites how the closer competition at the top means circuit configurations are now dictating the order.
“I don’t remember exactly the order of the races, but from Shanghai you have four teams in two or three-tenths,” the Frenchman said.
“And this is changing, the order is changing because over the last four weekends we had four different teams doing the pole position. And we didn’t change massively the car.
“It means that it’s more related to the track layout, to the compound, to the temperature that you are in the window of plus or minus one or two-tenths.
“And as the group is mega close, at the end it’s making the order in qualification.
“And then on this kind of track that it’s quite difficult to overtake and you have almost the classification of the quali at the end of the race.
“I’m sure that if we are starting P3, P4, it’s the opposite in the classification at the end.
“And if we have to do a step, honestly, I think it’s much more on Saturday that we didn’t do the best than today.”
Vasseur denies that Ferrari has slipped to being the fourth-quickest team, reiterating again that the competitive landscape will continue to evolve through the season.
“We were five-thousands off the Mercs yesterday,” he highlighted. “I think it’s a gust of wind or something like this.
“And there were 40 seconds behind us in Monaco two weeks ago. That means that before to draw any conclusion like this, that we have to stay calm.
“We have to take event by event. And I think next week it will be a completely different format, different tarmac, different type of corners also. And we will have another picture.
“Probably the picture will be completely different, favourable to us or not, but the picture will be completely different next week.
“Now, nothing is forever in F1 today.
“I’m not sure that you can find over the last 10 years in F1 four consecutive events with four different guys in pole position and four different teams.
“It means that it’s not crystal clear that one is better than the other one or better than the sub one.”
Vasseur also rubbished the notion that being competitive on an unconventional track like Monaco and then struggling on a traditional circuit provided warning signs.
When asked whether it was a concern Ferrari had excelled at an outlier venue, he remarked: “If we are winning in Singapore, Baku, Monaco and so on, it is not that bad.
“Yes, but on the other hand, I think we were a couple of times on the first four also.
“I am not sure that you can say today that there is a clear order into the grid. We will see next week.
“Perhaps next week, you are right that it is clear now that the order is like this. But it will be like this also until the next upgrade or next modification.
“Or even next week you will have a low-speed corner and the week after we are in Silverstone.
“I think there is much more in the characteristics of the car fitting with the high-speed corner or with the components than on the pure potential when you have four teams in two-tenths.”
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