Ferrari's Fred Vasseur: Leclerc Had Pace to Win US Grand Prix

Fred Vasseur has not hidden the frustration that the United States Grand Prix left at Ferrari. The Italian team director, satisfied with Charles Leclerc's second place and Lewis Hamilton's fourth, acknowledged that the team aspired to more and that the SF-26's pace was enough to have fought for victory in Austin, a mix of pride and disappointment that reflects the Scuderia's current moment.

"I don't know if you heard the whole radio but very early in the race, Charles was aiming for P1 and when you do P2 and you aim for P1, you are not happy, but I like that as a feeling. Honestly at the end of the weekend I think it is a good week, a good result for us for the third or fourth consecutive race we are the team that scores the most points, I think we are on the right track but certainly when you have this feeling that you are in good form during the weekend and you do P2, you can also have a bit of frustration. But frustration is sometimes good" Vasseur declared.

The French director defended the strategy chosen by Ferrari which opted for two stops while McLaren bet on one: "Today I think it was between one and two stops, we had to be aggressive starting from P4 and P5, it was a good decision on our part. Now when you start a little behind, you start to have dirty air and you have to be a little more aggressive and without perhaps the Virtual Safety Car at the end, Lewis could have come back at Max, I don't know but probably yes" he explained.

Vasseur was clear in pointing out that the SF-26's performance was up to the best throughout the weekend and that the problem was in qualifying: "The pace was good, from when we put the car on track on Friday morning until the last lap of the race, the pace was there, what we have to keep in mind is that competitiveness is not only about the package; it is also the fact that sometimes the setup, the tire management, you are in the right place and you are doing a good weekend and sometimes not...and if you have the package when you are not in the right place, you can also have the feeling that it doesn't work" he added.

The big challenge for Ferrari remains finding the performance window in Q3, a problem that affects all teams: "I think at least in this weekend, it was true for everyone. Probably Kimi also took a step because you can also imagine that he was not in the right place before and he put it all together for Q3, but I think the other seven cars, except Hadjar, probably the other six cars took a step back, Charles's fastest lap was in Q2, surely we did not do the perfect job in Q3. This is true for us, for everyone, but we have to put all the parameters together to try to have a better understanding of the situation and I think all the teams are improving step by step in this, but it is so marginal that sometimes a gust of wind, you slide a little, you overheat the tires for details, sometimes you can be out of the point. If you don't put it all together you can go from P2 to P6" Vasseur concluded.

Ferrari faces the final stretch of the season with the need to polish those details if it wants to return to the top of the podium.