The Italian team boss acknowledged that the SF-26 did not have the pace of Mercedes and Verstappen: "Strategy was not the problem, but the lack of pace."
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, has acknowledged that the lack of pace was the main problem for the team at the Austrian Grand Prix, the SF-26 could not compete with the Mercedes and Max Verstappen's Red Bull despite Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton having achieved second and third position on the starting grid: "Strategy is not the problem, I think the problem is that we didn't have the pace of Mercedes and Verstappen. We tried to compensate by taking risks on strategy, but it wasn't a good fight" declared Vasseur to F1 TV.
The Ferrari director explained that the team tried to be aggressive in the first laps to stay with the leaders, but that ended up taking its toll: "We probably pushed too hard in the first laps to stay with them and we destroyed it a bit" he admitted.
Hamilton, who had won in Barcelona, finished fifth, while Leclerc was eighth. Vasseur stressed that the problem was not strategy, but the SF-26's lack of pure pace: "Compared to McLaren we are there, compared to Mercedes and Max it was more difficult, the issue is more about overheating and destroying everything, it has nothing to do with pace" said the Frenchman.
Leclerc, who had had two complicated weekends in Monaco and Barcelona, showed good level in Austria, according to Vasseur: "Yesterday he was on the front row which means the confidence was there and it was there today. It's more a matter of overheating and destroying everything, it has nothing to do with his pace" he explained.
The Ferrari boss acknowledged that the team focused too much on Mercedes and that cost them: "Looking back, we were probably too focused on Mercedes today, we pushed too hard in the first laps with both cars and then perhaps we reacted too aggressively with the strategy, trying to stay with them when in reality, that wasn't our race today" declared Vasseur in a post race statement.
Ferrari hopes to learn from the mistakes in Austria and improve ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where Hamilton will race at home: "We will learn from this, we will focus on ourselves and focus our attention on the British Grand Prix next week" concluded Vasseur.
The Scuderia needs to regain pace if it wants to continue fighting with Mercedes in the constructors' championship. Silverstone will be a new opportunity for Ferrari to prove that the stumble in Austria was just an accident and not a trend.
