F1 | Vasseur: “My pace is OK, but we need to understand what's wrong in turn 17”

The victory in Melbourne is already behind us and now Ferrari finds itself dealing with a situation very similar to that faced in Sakhir and Jeddah, in the first two races of the season.

In Suzuka the Red Bulls returned to dominate, while the Reds struggled quite a bit on the flying lap so much so that they finished in fourth place with Carlos Sainz and eighth with Charles Leclerc.

Apart from the Red Bulls – currently uncatchable – the Red team could find itself in a close and tight battle with McLaren, Aston Martin and Mercedes for the lowest step of the podium, barring sensational surprises like the one that changed the fate of the Grand Prix 'Australia.

“It's difficult to have a picture of tomorrow's race now,” said Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, to Sky Sport F1 at the end of Qualifying. “We are very close, there is a tenth between fourth and ninth place in qualifying, which means that the group is compact and that the first lap tomorrow will be very important. It is also true that the degradation in race pace was under control , so this puts us in a good position for the race. But it's a shame for today's qualifying. We could have aimed for a better result.”

Leclerc didn't have the opportunity to make the two canonical attempts in Q3, taking advantage of the only set of new Softs left after using more than expected in Q1 to protect himself from an unforeseen but risky situation. According to Vasseur, it was that situation that prevented Ferrari from obtaining a better result than the one achieved today.

“The mistake in qualifying, if there was one, is that we put the passage through to Q1 at risk. This forced us to fit another new set of Softs and also in Q2 we were always a little behind delay. We were therefore only able to make one attempt with Charles in Q3, while our rivals all made 2. It was something that arose in Q1, not in Q3. It's a shame, because I think we could have done a little better today.”

Ferrari showed several shortcomings both in the first sector – the one in which there is the sequence of fast corners that instead highlights Red Bull and McLaren – and in the third. And this is precisely where Vasseur's analysis was concentrated. According to the transalpine team principal, the Ferrari loses a lot of time in the last corner of the chicane, the one that then leads onto the finishing straight.

This can mean several things. From a non-optimal set-up to, what is even more likely, an error in the interpretation of the chicane by the drivers due to a relative confidence in the vehicle. But it will be a fundamental aspect to fix within the race, because guaranteeing a good exit from the corner and exploiting the only valid portion of the track in which to use the DRS could prove decisive.

“Today in all the sessions we struggled a lot in turn 17, the last of the chicane before the finish line where a gap was created against Max. We need to talk about it. We're talking about a tenth between ninth position and fourth and it's a question of details. But the details are important, so we need to focus on this and understand why we lose so much time in the last corner. It will be important to understand this also from a race perspective, because traction will be fundamental. There is only one straight with the DRS, so we have to resolve the problem by tomorrow.”

Regarding the race pace, Vasseur said he was very happy with the tire degradation he noticed in yesterday's Free Practice 1 and in the Free Practice 3 held this morning. What it is not possible to do, however, is compare the times with those of the rivals because no one knows how much fuel and what maps they ran with.

“We have to pay attention to the pace itself, we don't know the fuel level, nor the maps used by the others during the simulations. The important thing is the degradation and it went well for us. It shows that we can do well and have a good chance , but the position at the end of the first lap will be fundamental. With clean air in front it is much better. Here in Suzuka it is not easy to overtake and doing 30 laps behind a single-seater is complicated. So the first lap will be fundamental”, concluded the manager of Ferrari.