F1 | Vasseur: “Unlucky, but the pace was there. We’ll have something new at Imola”

Podiums arrived for Ferrari in Miami, but with a touch of bitterness. The Reds, also painted blue for the occasion, fought with Max Verstappen while remaining very close to the World Championship leader. But they hadn’t taken into account the great step forward made by McLaren thanks to the introduction of a very important evolutionary package that led Lando Norris to win his first grand prix in Formula 1.

At the end of the Miami Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur spoke to Sky Sport F1 as usual to comment on the Scuderia’s race.

The transalpine manager said he was satisfied not so much with the result – that could have given greater satisfaction – but with the pace that the SF-24s have shown despite not having yet mounted any significant upgrades during this season.

“We have been fighting with McLaren since the beginning of the season. In Melbourne they were close and also in the other races they are always quite competitive and close. However, I want to congratulate Norris, who achieved his first victory in Formula 1 , and at McLaren. We all approached Lando to congratulate him in the paddock, we are all happy for him.”

“For our part we did quite well. The pace was there, we stayed close to Max throughout the race. We had a bit of bad luck with the Safety Car but that’s how it went. Safety is so used to seeing Max in front that went out in front of him. We have to start from the positive things, like the race pace, which was good.”

At the start the braking with which Perez almost hit the Ferraris and Max Verstappen would have influenced the Reds’ race. Vasseur thinks this, considering the difficulties of overtaking in the race. The team principal, however, repeated that he was satisfied above all with the race pace shown by both Leclerc and Sainz.

“Perez’s start certainly influenced things. It wasn’t ideal. If we look at the race, it was influenced by the positions on the track, because it was quite difficult to overtake. And Carlos lost 2 positions precisely because of that attack by Perez. So it certainly wasn’t a good thing for us and for Carlos.”

“Overall, however, we had an excellent race. Carlos’ pace was truly remarkable and we managed to recover up to fourth position with him. He was also unlucky with the Safety Car, because he came in one lap before the safety car entered the track like this, we have to keep the positive aspects of the weekend. Even though we didn’t have any updates, we had pace every day.”

Ferrari will introduce the first significant updates at Imola in a couple of weeks. The team expects to be able to reduce the gap to those in front, but Vasseur was keen to point out that the work on the track is what gives the car the most performance. Even more than the updates themselves.

“I’m sure that in Imola we will have a better race than this one. We know that everyone has brought many updates up to now, but we still finished ahead of several cars. We have reached a point in the development of the car where if you bring something new gains tenths, not seconds. Years ago it could have happened, but today it didn’t. McLaren brought a huge package of updates to this weekend, but it wasn’t half a second faster than everyone else.”

“Without a doubt the gap with those at the top will be smaller in Imola and we will be able to fight to win, but I believe there is a gap that varies from track to track and between compounds, rather than dictated by the updates. We just have to go forward track and concentrate on our work, working with the things we have. The innovations we will bring to Imola will certainly help us, but it won’t all depend on that, but on how we work on the track”, concluded the Ferrari team principal.