Ferrari Frustration
Fourth pole position in a row, fourth occasion in which Charles Leclerc fails to convert a pole position start into victory on the Baku track. But with a lot more regret than in previous years: if in 2021 and 2023 there was no chance of winning and in 2022 it was an engine failure that eliminated the Monegasque from the fight with Verstappen, the domination with medium tyres in the first stint this time seemed to suggest a quiet afternoon for the Ferrari garage. But that wasn’t the case and the disappointment was palpable on the face of the team principal Frederic Vasseur It is a clear indicator of how frustrating the final result of the Azerbaijan GP is for the people of the Prancing Horse.
Frederic Vasseur speaks
“The rear tires – the French manager explained to the microphones Sky – they didn’t help Leclerc, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. He was probably a bit optimistic after the first stint because we were very comfortable and the introduction of the Hards was very important anyway and so he didn’t push so much after the pit stop. Maybe it wasn’t the right approach at that stage, because in the end it was very difficult to try to overcome Piastriand when you are behind you damage the tyres more than when you are in front. Oscar’s overtaking? I haven’t spoken to Charles yet, but anyway it was the first lap of the stint, it was important to conserve the tyres and maybe he didn’t see that Piastri was so fast on the straight, so he was taken by surprise”.
Frustration with the result
It is therefore difficult to hide the regret: “We had the potential to win with the package we had on track in Baku. We started from pole, we were dominating and so before we talk about the next updates or developments we have to make sure we do our best with what we have. I think today we had some margin to do a better job all together, but it went the way it went. In the end, the podium came with a 2nd place, we are scoring more points than Red Bull, we are taking them back in the Constructors’ Championship and this is important. But it is true that there is a kind of frustration for the fact that we lost against Piastri and for Carlos’ accident”.
Perez-Sainz incident
Regarding the crash on the penultimate lap involving Sainz: “This is the first time I’ve seen the incident on replay, but I think Carlos started the straight just behind Charles and both he and Perez tried to take advantage of the slipstream. It’s true that Checo had a lot of space on the left and didn’t move at all, it was certainly a shame to end a weekend like that like this.. But it was a good race, an intense afternoon. Everyone was at the limit with the tyres and you can’t always win. You can draw conclusions, of course, but overall we did a good job.”.
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