Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has insisted the team is on the right path with a 45-second reduction in the gap to the race winners in Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Maranello-based squad’s plight in competitiveness was evident again at the Hungaroring as Charles Leclerc crossed the line in fourth and Carlos Sainz was sixth.
Ferrari emerged as Red Bull’s closest challenger earlier in the campaign, but updates in Spain triggered bouncing that has cost it up to “three months” in development.
Having closed to 24 points behind Red Bull with Leclerc’s win in Monaco, Ferrari has since dropped behind McLaren, who attained a dominant 1-2 result last weekend.
However, Vasseur is not concerned about Ferrari’s regression as he pointed out that the team’s leading car was much closer to the ultimate pace than 12 months ago.
“At the end, we had q strong pace on Sunday,” Vasseur said. “Last year we finished 65 seconds behind Red Bull and this weekend we are 20 seconds behind the leader.
“And in front of the Red Bull, I think, in the last 12 months we did a decent job.
“Now it’s not enough, but it’s clear that McLaren was faster than us. And they were faster than us by two or three-tenths all the weekend.
“But looking after where we are coming back and the last two or three events, we did a good recovery.
“And now let’s be focused on the next one. We need to do a step in performance, but we are on the right way.”
Despite having run an extended opening stint to chase down Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen ahead, Ferrari elected to pit him again with 30 laps still remaining.
But while Leclerc was able to undercut Verstappen, the Dutchman used nine-lap newer Mediums to regain the spot until a clash with Hamilton saw him drop behind.
Vasseur has revealed that the Italian marque’s decision to cut short Leclerc’s middle stint was not pre-planned and was instead an attempt to acquire more positions.
“We were expecting to do a longer one,” Vasseur divulged. “But when we caught Hamilton and Max, we were stuck behind them.
“And at one stage we had to make a decision. If you stay on track and you have the same tyres, the same edge of the tyres than the guy in front of you, you can’t overtake.
“You have to take some aggressive options, either to stay on track as we did on the first stint, and you extend and then you have a tyre advantage because you have 10 laps less.
“If the deg is half a tenth per lap, if you have 10 laps, you have a half a second of advantage. Or you try to do the undercut.
“We did it, but Hamilton pitted the same lap as us and we were a bit stuck behind him at the beginning of the stint. When you have two cars in front of you, it’s quite difficult.”
Vasseur has also acknowledged that the hotter track temperatures aided Ferrari in the race, but warned that won’t be the case at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend.
Asked whether the change in conditions was one reason behind Ferrari’s general improvement in the race, Vasseur said: “It’s difficult to say.
“It’s coming from the global set-up of the car, fitting more with the long stint or the temperature.
“But it’s true that we are in a better shape today. We fighted [sic] all the race with the Mercedes and the Red Bull and it was better than in the qualifying.
“I don’t want to say it’s next week, because I’m not sure that next week we’ll have very hot temperature. But after the break we’ll have some hot races and it will be better for us.”
Sainz has cautioned that a return to a high-speed Spa-Francorchamps track will aggravate Ferrari’s recurring bouncing woes compared to the slow-speed Hungaroring.
“Let’s be focused on the problem of Budapest and I will have next week to discuss about Spa,” Vasseur commented.
“But for sure it will be a different track, but it’s not just coming from the speed, and the situation in Spa will be different.”
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