Frederic Vasseur reacted immediately to Ferrari’s poor qualifying session, with Leclerc in 11th and Hamilton in 12th.
It was a disastrous qualifying session for Ferrari at Imola, with both cars eliminated in Q2. A historically embarrassing result for the Maranello team: Leclerc finished 11th, while Hamilton ended up right behind him. Neither driver managed to improve their lap time on fresh tyres, being overtaken by both Aston Martins.
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, Frederic Vasseur commented on Ferrari’s dreadful qualifying: “It’s a very tough day for us. It feels like a copy and paste of the Miami weekend, where we set our fast lap with a tyre disadvantage. The tyres behaved strangely for everyone today, especially with the tyre differences in Q3. Yesterday and this morning, we had a decent pace, but then everyone improved by three or four tenths, and we didn’t. We need to understand why.”
The Frenchman added: “Was the potential not there? If we did everything right today, we’d be fourth and fifth. You know, today’s issues are 50% tyre management and 50% car potential. The car could have aimed for the third row, but execution wasn’t great—nor was the potential, since fifth or sixth place can’t be our target.”
On the topic of upgrades, he said: “If I say we’ve figured out how to solve our problems, I’d sound like a fool. Aston Martin’s upgrades? They were the only ones to qualify on the medium tyre, which is unusual, but they’ve made a big step forward compared to previous races. When we talk about upgrades, we’re often talking about a tenth of a second—not a massive deal. It’s really tyre behaviour we need to understand and take better advantage of.”
Regarding the race tomorrow, he concluded: “Hopes for tomorrow’s race? Everything is still open, because the race pace we showed yesterday was strong. It will still be tough, and we may have to take some strategic risks. Today’s result wasn’t what we expected, and we apologize to the fans—we’re already focusing on tomorrow.”