Ferrari team principal Vasseur dampens Hamilton’s hopes: “Not magically at the front”

The Silverstone weekend got off to a really good start for Ferrari in the first and only free practice session on Friday afternoon, with Lewis Hamilton taking first place and Charles Leclerc third. Just a few weeks after his victory in Barcelona, is Hamilton on course for another major triumph at Silverstone, this time at his home race? He set the fastest time of 1:29.260 on Friday afternoon, finishing a good six-tenths of a second ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

However, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur played down expectations after the session: “Let’s wait until qualifying, when everyone has the same amount of fuel in the tank and is getting the most out of the engines.” In other words, Vasseur isn’t yet convinced by the order on the timesheet. The competition may have held back.

Engine deficit remains a problem

Furthermore, the French engineer notes: “We had an engine deficit in the last race and we’re now running the same engine. I don’t expect us to be at the front as if by magic.”

Reflecting on the Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg a week ago – a disappointing result for Ferrari, finishing 5th and 8th following their victory in Barcelona – Vasseur concludes: “It wasn’t a good race for us at all. Qualifying was decent in terms of performance, even though Kimi (Antonelli, ed.) would have finished ahead of us. But the rest didn’t work at all. We’re working on it and trying not to make the same mistakes. But the field is tight, and we’re in the early stages of developing the cars. Like everyone else, we need to understand the tyres.”

Results are currently very inconsistent

What has Vasseur learnt from Austria? The Frenchman teases: “I’ll keep that to myself.” He merely notes: “For everyone, it’s a bit more up and down than last year, when we had the same cars and the same tyres. We’re still making mistakes with set-up or tyre management. That was less of an issue last year. In my opinion, that’s why the results vary so much from one race to the next.”

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