Vasseur Admits Ferrari’s Mistake and Praised His Drivers

Fred Vasseur has been sincere when analyzing the race at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. The Ferrari boss acknowledged that the decision to mount slick tires at the start was a mistake but highlighted his drivers' ability to recover from a situation that, in the first laps, seemed a disaster. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished third and fourth, a result that although it was favored by the late retirement of George Russell and the battery problems of Isack Hadjar, was the fruit of exceptional driving and impeccable strategy in the second part of the race.

"I think 50% of the cars opted for slicks, 50% for rain tires. You can't test you just look at the asphalt in front of you in the pit lane and it certainly wasn't the right option. It's not that I have no regrets, it's clear that it was better to start with intermediates but we made the decision with the information we had" Vasseur declared. The Frenchman explained that the team expected the track to dry faster than it finally did: "When you have to make the decision, you try to base it on good parameters but we have to be lucid that it wasn't the right call. The pit stop was also quite long, 26 seconds" he added.

Leclerc's race changed radically at the start, when he had a contact with Nico Hülkenberg that forced him to enter the pits immediately to mount intermediates and a new front wing. Hamilton, for his part, opted to stay on track with the slicks assuming the risk: "We let him choose, in the end in this situation, they are in the car. When we tell him we are ready it's just to tell him he can come in if he thinks it's the right decision. He did a very good race a very smooth strategy. He was able to do a very long stint with excellent tire management with the soft" Vasseur explained.

The Ferrari boss highlighted his drivers' pace, which was decisive in coming back positions: "We showed the same pace yesterday, we were on the front row but we were also on the front row in Baku, however the race pace was much better this weekend" he noted. Vasseur also stressed the changing conditions of Sepang, with track temperatures that went from 60 degrees in practice to 30 less in the race: "We were all a bit lost, when it restarted after the Safety Car, at one point you had seven cars on softs, seven on mediums, seven on hards, it's not very common" he commented.

Ahead of the next event in Singapore, Vasseur showed himself cautious but optimistic: "Let me have a beer tonight and we'll talk about Singapore tomorrow morning. It will be another race, for sure but each one is different and we'll see, we expected to do a good job this weekend and we did. We also hope to do well next week and I hope so" he concluded with a smile.

Ferrari faces the final stretch of the season with high morale and the confidence of having found a competitive pace that allows it to fight for podiums regularly.