Vasseur reveals the reason why Ferrari were strong at Monza
On the back of an emotional victory on Italian turf, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur claims that the most important factor is the way teams manage to execute a race weekend.
Ferrari took an emotional victory on home turf two weeks ago, with Charles Leclerc securing his second triumph at the Italian Grand Prix. The Monegasque appeared to be on course to take a second place at Monza, before the Scuderia pulled out a strategy trick to execute a brave one-stop strategy with Leclerc.
Although Ferrari introduced a host of upgrades at Monza, including new front and rear wing, a heavily-modified floor and a reshaped sidepod inlet, team boss Fred Vasseur stated that the most important fact has been the way the Maranello-based "executed the weekend" from Friday to Sunday.
"We are on a high following the win in Monza and we are determined to maintain this run of form. Once again, we can expect to see a very close fight between the top four teams.
"I often say we are focussing on ourselves and it’s clear this is the right approach, because we have seen a dramatic change in the hierarchy among the teams since the early part of the season.
"Our win in Italy also supports my view that how you execute the weekend from Friday to Sunday can play as important a role as the actual performance level of the car, so with Charles and Carlos we will again be aiming to do everything perfectly in Baku, to try and bring home another very good result for the team."
At just over six kilometres in length, the Baku track offers a bit of everything, with hard braking, 90 degree corners and chicanes that put a premium on driver ability.
The straight that goes from turn 16 to turn 1 is over two kilometres long and is the scene of plenty of action during the race, with drivers slipstreaming one another at over 320 km/h. From turns 4 to 12, the drivers have to adopt a more usual street circuit driving style, with barriers very close and right angle corners, including the famous left hander under the ancient tower which is only wide enough to accommodate one car at a time.
Since the Baku circuit made its debut in 2016, Ferrari secured four pole position, one courtesy of Sebastian Vettel and three other courtesy of Charles Leclerc. However, the Scuderia has not managed to convert any pole positions into a race victroy yet.
"The Baku street circuit features a combination of very high speed sections and extremely twisty ones, presenting a unique set of challenges. In the past, we have usually been quite competitive here and it is also one of Charles’ favourites," concluded Vasseur.
