Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur makes it clear: “We need to improve that”

The clear favourite for this year’s Constructors’ Championship is undoubtedly Mercedes; the German car manufacturer’s team has won eight of the eleven Grands Prix held so far and leads the World Championship standings by a substantial margin. Behind them, Ferrari has established itself as the main challenger; the Maranello-based team lies 72 points behind the leaders from Brackley and Brixworth.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have each secured one Grand Prix victory this year; the seven-time world champion came out on top in the clash at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, whilst his team-mate from Monaco was the first to cross the finish line at Silverstone. However, the most recent Grand Prix victory before the summer break went to a different team: world champion Lando Norris was the first to see the chequered flag at the Hungaroring, whilst there was no sign of either of the two Ferrari stars on the podium.

And yet the Reds had finished Friday’s practice sessions in first and second place. No wonder, then, that team principal Fred Vasseur spoke afterwards of a missed opportunity. He also revealed what needs to be done: “When I look at the Hungarian Grand Prix, it’s all about execution. In fact, we were still very good in that respect at the start of the year.”

A different philosophy to McLaren

“We also know that we need to improve our power unit, and we will do so, even though we know that it takes much longer to make improvements to the engine than to the chassis,” added the engineer, who also spoke about his team’s different development strategy compared to the world champion McLaren squad.

“McLaren have taken a huge step forward, but they don’t quite follow the same philosophy, as they introduce major upgrade packages – I think the last time was in Miami or Canada. Of course, every time they introduce something new, they take a huge step forward, but we’re taking a different approach: we’re trying to bring new parts onto the track at every single race, and we need to maintain this momentum because there are still 11 or 12 races to go. And there’s still room for improvement across the board with the chassis. That’s why we need to maintain our pace of development,” explained the Frenchman.

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