Fred Vasseur believes Ferrari need to closely investigate the problems that cost them a podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The Ferrari Team Principal doesn’t feel his drivers’ results in Zandvoort reflected the potential of the SF-26. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished fourth and fifth, but Vasseur thinks execution errors from the team cost them track position in a race where more could have been possible for the Scuderia.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Vasseur identified pit stop execution, strategy, and the start of the race as areas that need to be looked at further.
“Yeah, the pace was decent in the race, but we had some issues with execution. We had a poor start with Charles on the second start. We lost position to Piastri, who was on the hards, and we lost a lot of time at this stage of the race.
“And then we had a poor pit stop with Charles, and we lost a position again. It’s a kind of confusion, and it’s a bit of a shame because I think the pace was strong; I think at least stronger than Mercedes.
“But it is how it is that we now have to take a deep look at what we did and what we did wrong, to understand why we lost the position at the start on softs, and to try to do better next week.”
Strategy blunder and an unhappy Hamilton
The restart following the red flag caused by Max Verstappen’s Lap 1 crash was the beginning of Ferrari’s struggles. Leclerc had a poor getaway, allowing the McLaren of Oscar Piastri to get ahead despite being on harder tyres, so the Monegasque driver had to try to gain back his lost position.
Meanwhile, Hamilton was stuck behind Leclerc on an offset tyre strategy and was carrying more pace than his teammate. He wasn’t shy to voice his frustrations over team radio and felt that he was losing significant time.
When asked if the team had considered using Leclerc to undercut George Russell for P3, Vasseur explained that the situation on track had been more complicated than that.
“We had a group of people in our shadow, and we are trying to clear this group, and there was another group in front,” he said. “In the end, we took an option. But the cars in front pitted, like Ocon and Lindblad, and we gave it to Russell like this.
“The story with Lewis was that at one stage we were trying to go to the end. And I think it would have been a good call also.
“But probably we lost one second with [following] Charles. The target when you go to the end is not this one, but for sure, with what has happened after, you can always rewrite the race.”
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