F1 | Vasseur: “This is why we were aggressive in our strategies”

Frédéric Vasseur and Ferrari found themselves dealing with another less than stellar weekend at Silverstone, home of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz’s fifth place finish and Charles Leclerc’s finish outside the points are the perfect snapshot of a difficult moment for a team that, for too many years now, has followed the same type of performance pattern. Good starts are followed by terrible continuations, with updates to the cars struggling to function as hoped.

At the end of the British race, Vasseur spoke to Sky Sport to comment on the race, starting immediately with an explanation of Leclerc’s aggressive race strategies.

Vasseur, can you explain the strategy chosen for Leclerc? The Intermediates were fitted too early…
“After the race it is certainly easier to make strategies. We gave the same information to our drivers at that moment, but our drivers were in different situations. Carlos was fighting with Verstappen and at that point he was also faster than him. So he was copying Max’s race. Charles, the first stint, had spent the whole of it behind Stroll and was already 10 seconds behind. And this pushes the team and Charles to make an aggressive decision. On the lap when Charles came in, Hamilton and Russell went off in Turn 1, we thought it could work but it didn’t.”

So, are these decisions the result of circumstances?
“We made those kinds of decisions for the circumstances we found ourselves in, because if we had been in better positions, at the top, from the start of the weekend, we certainly wouldn’t have made such aggressive decisions as we did.”

Today the race seemed very complex. Fast cars in the dry struggled in the wet and vice versa…
“Today the conditions and the difficulties with the tyres were the same for everyone. I would say it was also a question of how much energy was put into the tyres in the first laps. Carlos, in the first part of each stint, was conservative and always had a good second part of the stint. At the beginning he was always slower than the leaders because he was managing, then he was always a bit faster. Maybe with Carlos we should have come in a lap earlier for the last pit stop. But overall he had a great race.”

Could the internal situation, with Cardile seemingly about to leave Maranello, be a source of distraction and disturbance?
“Our problem is not that we are talking about Cardile’s position or Newey’s position. It’s more the people around the team who are talking about it. We never start our debriefings talking about this, it’s not a topic of discussion for us. But it’s also true that the last four grands prix have been very difficult for us. In Canada we had reliability problems, then with the introduction of the new package in Spain it gave us difficulties. In Spielberg we also did good things, but we were in difficulty. Here it was a bit the same. The potential was not so bad if you look at today’s race. At the end of the first stint, Carlos was a few tenths from Verstappen”.

From the data collection you did this weekend among the evolutionary packages, do you already know what you will use in Hungary?
“We’ll decide later which spec to use in Hungary, it’s not an issue now. Here in Silverstone we had some bouncing, but today things were better. I think we can carry these improvements into next weekend.”

Today Hamilton, one of the two Ferrari drivers from 2025, returned to victory. A good sign for you too…
“I’m happy for Lewis, but I’m focused on this season. We have enough problems and discussions at the moment. We’ll welcome him later. Now we have to find the same dynamic in the first part of the season, because we’re still second in the World Championship and if we can get back into the points with two cars I’m sure the situation can improve.”