Fred Vasseur has reflected on Ferrari’s “good weekend” in Japan after Charles Leclerc secured P3, with the Team Principal pinpointing the team’s struggles when it comes to straight-line performance.
The Scuderia enjoyed their third podium finish of the season thanks to Leclerc, but Lewis Hamilton could only manage sixth after he lost out in a battle against McLaren’s Lando Norris, the Briton labelling it a “pretty terrible weekend”.
After he chose to pit early, the added complication of a mid-race Safety Car forced the Monegasque to fight his way back up to P3, which he then fiercely defended from Mercedes driver George Russell over the final laps of the race.
“I think it’s overall a good weekend with a fantastic drive from Charles over the last couple of laps, keeping Russell behind,” Vasseur said. “He was a bit unlucky like George with the Safety Car, but overall it was a strong performance.
“Now we have one month in front of us to come back a bit stronger before Miami. It’s good to score points and always be there to [stay on] the path of the Championship because it’s important for the rest of the season.
“It was clear today that we have a deficit of performance in a straight line – they were complaining a lot, but it is like it is. We have room for improvement.”
A highlight of the round was another entertaining fight between the Ferrari team mates – they made minor contact as Leclerc came out on top, but the team boss insisted that he is satisfied with how hard they raced each other.
“As long as we have the two cars at the end, yes, I’m happy,” Vasseur confirmed. “It’s a good emulation and I think everybody would prefer to have the two cars in front rather than one at the front and one at the back.
“I’m very pleased with this – they have huge respect between them and they know perfectly that it’s Ferrari first. They are doing a very good job on track.”
With a pause in racing now underway before the next round in Miami, all 11 teams will take the time to review their performances from the first three events and implement changes that could help them improve over the rest of the season.
Vasseur noted that Ferrari “have a lot of work” to do in order to close the gap to Mercedes, emphasising that all of their competitors will be chasing down the same objective.
In a team interview, he explained: “It is the beginning of the homologation of the car. It means that we have tonnes of things to improve. Now we have good data after three races to understand the competitiveness of the car, where we are OK-ish and where we are not.
“It means that performance is coming from everywhere, but we have to take a step in every single area of the performance. I am sure that it is true for us, but it will be true for everybody on the grid. It means that it is more a matter of doing a better job than the others and to take a step.”