Vasseur relieved after Ferrari salvaged its Singapore race despite a disastrous qualifying
Following a tough Saturday, Ferrari’s team boss Fred Vasseur offered a honest assessment of the Scuderia’s performance at the Singapore Grand Prix, praising the Maranello-based outfit for turning things around after the difficult qualifying session.
Ferrari endured a very difficult qualifying session yesterday on a track that was expected to highlight the SF-24’s strengths. The final qualifying segment saw Carlos Sainz crash out, causing significant damage to the rear end of his car.
His team-mate Charles Leclerc looked in contention for a top spot on the grid, but an issue with tyre preparation meant that he only qualified ninth on the grid.
The two drivers started on the Medium tyres but their strategies were different. Leclerc got away well, passing Yuki Tsunoda, then tucking in behind Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso, while Sainz lost two places and found himself in a DRS train.
The team therefore decided to call him in very early, on Lap 13, to switch to the Hard tyre, after which he had slower cars to deal with before running pretty much at his own pace. This move, combined with his clever tyre management, meant Sainz got as high as sixth place on lap 43.
As for Leclerc, he stayed out until lap 36, one of the last to pit, having managed his Mediums very well. It meant he was able to rejoin eighth, ahead of Hulkenberg on much fresher tyres compared to Alonso, who was only able to keep the Ferrari at bay for two laps. On lap 43, the team switched the drivers round so that Leclerc could set off in pursuit of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Sainz meanwhile was managing his seventh place, fending off Alonso who never really posed a threat. Leclerc easily passed Hamilton with ten laps remaining and closed on the other Mercedes five laps from the flag.
Reflecting on the Singapore Grand Prix, Vasseur said: “I’m very pleased with how we performed today, less so with Saturday. We had a good strategy, good race management and we ran a very strong race on both sides of the garage.
“Carlos had a difficult start after which he showed good pace and in the closing stages, Charles was matching Norris for pace and Russell was not that far in front at the end. We could not really expect more than this fifth place from where we started.
“We now have a three week gap to the next race and I expect all the teams, including ourselves, will bring something new to Austin. It’s the first part of a triple-header and I expect that, as usual, some of these three tracks will suit some teams better than others,” concluded Vasseur.
