Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur: “We focused too much on Mercedes”

Following qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, the Ferrari team was delighted with the strong starting positions secured by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. The Monegasque driver and the Briton benefited from Max Verstappen’s crash, which robbed some of their rivals of the chance to complete a final fast lap. The pair were therefore able to start the eighth Grand Prix of the year from second and third on the grid.

There were high hopes of getting at least one car into the top three. However, after 71 laps, Hamilton crossed the finish line in fifth place. Leclerc even had to settle for eighth place. Team principal Fred Vasseur admitted: “It was a tough weekend, especially after the win in Barcelona.”

And the Frenchman added self-critically: “I think we didn’t get off to the best start to the weekend on Friday; we had a lot of problems in the first two practice sessions and weren’t able to run in race set-up under representative conditions.”

“We managed to find a bit of pace over a single lap in the end, and in qualifying we achieved a good result with second and third places. But our preparation for the race wasn’t quite as it should have been. Looking back, you could also say we focused too much on Mercedes. We pushed both cars too hard in the opening laps, and our strategy was a bit too aggressive in an attempt to keep up, even though they weren’t our rivals today,” explained Vasseur, who promised: “We’ll learn from this and now focus entirely on the British Grand Prix, which is coming up next week.”

Topic of the week

From major doubts to a major spectacle: why GP fans have reason to be delighted

Before the start of the season, critical voices dominated, but the World Championship rounds so far have shown that the rule changes are delivering exactly what was hoped for: excitement right up to the final lap.

Read more

TV program

Today

Budapest: Das Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

26.07.2026 - 17:15