Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur remains positive about Ferrari’s prospects after the summer break. Vasseur believes that the upcoming races will be well-suited to their 2024 Formula 1 car. At the start of the season, Ferrari showed promise with their revamped SF-24 car, securing two wins and nine podium finishes in the first eight races. However, a significant upgrade in Barcelona caused the car to experience bouncing issues at high speeds, resulting in a setback of up to three months in development. As a result, Ferrari has fallen behind McLaren and Mercedes in the standings. Despite this, Vasseur is determined to address the problem and bring improvements as soon as possible. Ferrari managed to salvage some points at Spa-Francorchamps, but Vasseur acknowledges that the upcoming race at Zandvoort may pose challenges. However, he remains hopeful that the following races at Monza, Baku, and Singapore will be more favorable for the team. The main goal for Ferrari is to score points and minimize the gap to their rivals.
Vasseur has acknowledged that the remarkable turnaround by Mercedes to secure a 1-2 finish in Belgium illustrates the narrow margins at the front of the field. He emphasized that despite struggling in practice, Mercedes managed to make small improvements and quickly move from being at the back of the pack to the top positions. This serves as a strong reminder that attention to every detail is crucial. The days of finishing far behind the leader, as was the case two years ago, are long gone. The team has made significant progress, reducing the time gap from 65 seconds to 20 seconds compared to the previous year. Vasseur remains positive and stresses the importance of maintaining control and not overreacting.
The Frenchman admits that Ferrari’s decision to sacrifice certain races in order to experiment for the long-term was a mistake. He explains that the real challenge in the championship is not dominating when you have the best car, but rather scoring good points when the car is not performing at its best. Unfortunately, the team struggled in the UK, Spain, and Canada, and made some overreactions that resulted in the loss of valuable points. However, Vasseur believes that they are back on track now and are aiming to finish ahead of Red Bull and just a few points behind McLaren. This would be a positive outcome considering that last year they were trailing Red Bull by a massive 339 points, while this year the gap has been significantly reduced to 67 points.
