Frederic Vasseur comments on Ferrari’s lackluster performance with Leclerc seventh and Hamilton eighth
It was a race to forget for Ferrari, which couldn’t do better than seventh and eighth place, with Leclerc finishing ahead of Hamilton. The Scuderia spent the entire race in no man’s land, often battling with the Williams cars for the lower end of the points. Tensions ran high, especially during the position swap between Leclerc and Hamilton, both drivers sounding rather frustrated over the radio with their respective engineers.
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, Vasseur commented on the Miami Grand Prix: “McLaren were on another planet today. They finished more than 30 seconds ahead of everyone else. Even Verstappen had to push his tires to the limit just to stay with them, and that ended up costing him at the end. We were on par with Red Bull and Mercedes, but the gap to the front was clear.”
The Frenchman added: “For the first time in two years, we set the fastest qualifying lap on used tires. That’s a clear sign we need to fix fundamental issues related to tire management, one step at a time. The team radios from Leclerc and Hamilton? We respected our internal rules. Lewis had softer tires and tried to attack Antonelli. When we saw he couldn’t make it, we swapped positions back. It was fair to give it a shot.”
On the upcoming updates, he said: “The new parts will arrive, but we can’t just rely on those. We need to find the best compromise for the SF-25 and work on the full package—not just individual components. Imola should suit us better than Miami, especially due to the nature of the corners.”.
