about Ferrari it is an absolute ordeal. This 2023 season his car is much less competitive than last year. It has been overtaken by Aston Martin and now also by Mercedes, which took a very important leap at the Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton and George Russell they finished on the podium.
Carlos Sainz he crossed the finish line fifth despite starting second. Charles Leclerc, for his part, he failed to reach the points positions: he was eleventh behind Pierre Gasly.
Nonetheless, Fred Vasseur He believes there is good news to hold on to: “The main problem we’ve had is in line with the last few races. The car’s potential is there, in qualifying we have a good pace…”.
Of course, they take out max verstappen from the equation. “We can’t compare ourselves to Max, but at least compared to the rest, we managed to get Carlos on the front row, which shows that the potential is there,” says the Maranello boss.
“We suffered much more with consistency throughout the race, from compound to compound. Even with Charles, from one stint to the next, because the first one with the hard was difficult, while the second one was different, and in intermediate with Carlos we lost fifteen seconds”, explained the Frenchman.
On the tires and degradation, he points out that this is Ferrari’s main concern: “It’s not a question of tire management, because in the last stint, the performance was there, so it’s not a question of degradationbut if you push more, you have more degradation, and that’s the same for everyone.”
“The positive side is that I think the potential is there and sooner or later we will be able to unleash that potential by better understanding the tires and tire management, but we have to. We must focus on our work and on what we have to do…”, he has sentenced.
Regarding the constructors’ world championship, Ferrari walks in fourth position. He has 100 points, 34 behind Aston Martin. From behind, far away looms Alpine with 40. But this is not the result they expected from the Italian brand in the preseason.
