Fred Vasseur: « The ranking is not the one we were expecting. »
The Director of Scuderia Ferrari draws the first conclusions following the Bahrain Grand Prix, after the team's first retirement this season despite a potentially achievable podium.
The third step of the podium seemed to be secured by the Italians from Ferrari thanks to Charles Leclerc, who had a comfortable lead over his competitors.
Unfortunately for the Monegasque driver, the 41st lap meant his first retirement this season due to a reliability issue caused by a power cut in the engine compartment.
While the team had been forced to change the power supply and electronic control system before the Grand Prix even started, leaving the new head of Ferrari, Frédéric Vasseur, categorical that the team had to master their reliability.
« It’s never good to start with a DNF,” commented Vasseur after the race. « I would have preferred to finish for sure, but now I want to remain consistent in my position.”
I told the team, one or two weeks ago, that the championship would not end in Bahrain because of the results. It is still true today that the team has had a situation much better by far, but the most important thing now is to be able to have a clearer picture of the situation and better understand where we are weakest.
Red Bull is very strong, but…
Despite an abandonment and already being 31 points behind Red Bull, Vasseur highlights a positive point of the SF23, while emphasizing that the team needs to make a leap forward.
« Overall, the ranking is not what we expected before the race, he declared. « We want to summarize the situation and with the pace during qualifying, we are at it, we are on par with Red Bull, that was a positive point. »
« Now, we need to be fully realistic. If we want to improve the situation, the reality is that we want to win races, we need a clean slate on the weekend. (not having any reliability issues, editor’s note). »
