F1 | Vasseur: “With a better qualification, we would have achieved a double”

From strong point to weak point. Ferrari found itself competitive in Imola especially in the race, while in qualifying, despite being fast, it had to surrender to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull RB20 and Lando Norris’ McLaren, not to mention that if Oscar Piastri hadn’t run into the ‘impeding that caused him to lose 3 positions on the grid, he too would have started in front of the Reds.

We are talking about a few tenths, or rather, perhaps only hundredths. But with the latest developments brought to Miami by McLaren and to Imola by the Scuderia, the margin that Red Bull could have over its rivals has narrowed drastically, creating uncertainty that hasn’t been seen in Formula 1 since the first part of the 2022 season. .

At the end of yesterday’s grand prix, Frédéric Vasseur said he was happy to see 3 cars within 7 seconds at the end of the race. But he also underlined that he was also frustrated, because if the SF-24s had offered better performances in qualifying, then they could have also aimed for a double in the race.

“The first three cars within 6-7 seconds is good news for me, good news for F1, good news for the championship. There are three teams within seven seconds after seventy laps. It’s less than a tenth a lap. The situation has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of the weekend.”

“Next week we start from scratch in Monaco, with a different track, different corners and so on. Overall, I have a mixed feeling, because everything that we have taken a step forward, McLaren have probably done as well as us” .

“We have, I think, partially compensated for the gap with Red Bull, we are not far away and now I’m a bit frustrated because I think that if we had achieved first and second in qualifying, we would have achieved a double in today’s race. If we missed something, it was yesterday in qualifying and not today in the race.”

Looking to the future, Monaco will be a one-of-a-kind track that will provide little guidance. The Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, however, could be an ideal stage to better evaluate the innovations introduced in Imola.

“As for the curbs, I think Canada isn’t bad either! It’s also true that you have the advantage of the update, but then you have to do a bit of set up around this. I have to say that when there are three of you in a tenth, every single piece can make the difference, and the characteristic of the track”.

“If you look at the same cars in the same four events, because no one brought upgrades from Bahrain to China, the results were a bit inconsistent. Sometimes Red Bull had five tenths of an advantage, sometimes not. That means it will be like this also in the next five or six events and we must make the most of this situation.”