Upset at Ferrari after bad start in F1: “Let’s not kid ourselves”

After two dates of Formula 1, Red Bull He proved to be the candidate to revalidate the title, while the disappointment was delivered by Ferrariwhich failed to get on the podium in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, despite having placed at least one car on the second row at the start in both races. “Let’s not fool ourselves”asked Frederic Vasseurwho replaced Mattia Binotto at the helm of the Italian team this year.

In a strong self-criticism, the most responsible in the track of the stable assuming it is “unacceptable” the lack of pace of the car during races. “For me the picture is quite clear. The car’s potential is good, but it’s not enough compared to that of Red Bull, because we can’t always get the most out of the car.”he opined.

“The first stint went quite well and Charles made a good comeback, but he was on the soft and nobody knows the different compounds. Carlos had decent pace in the first stint about average, compared to the others, but we have completely lost ground with the hard“, noticed.

For Vasseur there is “the main problem”. “If we have to improve anything, it is clearly in the management of the different compounds. We really didn’t expect to be in this position and we need to look into why. I don’t want to dwell on the positive, because the result of the weekend is not good and we must focus on what is wrong, not on the positive“, he remarked.

Despite this, the Ferrari team leader clarified that “qualifying went quite well” at the Jeddah street circuit. “Of course we always want to do a better job, and it was difficult to know exactly what Red Bull’s potential was because Max (Verstappen) didn’t make Q3. But at least I had the feeling that compared to Mercedes and Aston Martin we have taken a step forward.“, held.

“We were a tenth down (in qualifying), they were three and four, I think, and I think we’re on the right track in terms of development. “But potential is one thing, and I think on the potential side we’ve given a step decent. The question is that we have to maintain this maximum potential throughout the weekend, and that’s not what we will do on Sunday.”

Ferrari will have ten days of work until the next race, which will be held on April 2 in Melbourne. The expectation is that the SF23 can get on the podium at the Australian Grand Prix. Sainz came closest so far with his fourth in Bahrain and sixth in Saudi Arabia, while Leclerc suffered a retirement and seventh place last Sunday.