Vasseur is sure that Ferrari has more potential to unlock
After a disappointing and tough season-opening race for Ferrari, the Scuderia’s team boss Fred Vasseur insists that he is sure that the SF-25 will have more to offer in the coming races compared to what it showed in Melbourne.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton almost made contact at the first corner after the start, but the Briton made a brilliant correction to avoid an early contact.
The Monegasque was able to make up two places on the first corner to jump from P7 to P5, while the Briton found himself stuck behind Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon in the first part of the race.
When the rain came back in the closing stages of the race, Ferrari left the drivers one lap too late out on track which meant that Leclerc and Hamilton dropped down the order to P9 and P10. In the end, the Monegasque gained a spot to finish eighth, but Hamilton finished in the last point-scoring place in his debut race with Ferrari.
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur confessed that his outfit failed to make a good job in Australia, but he sounded an optimistic note when assessing the Scuderia’s chances for the upcoming races.
"We can’t be happy with today’s result as it doesn’t match the potential of our car and that means, as a team, we didn’t do a good job. Charles got a good start and Lewis was also fighting to move up the order.
“Then, when the rain returned, we took the risk of staying out, as indeed did Max (Verstappen). But then we got our next strategy move wrong by staying out one lap too long and we paid the price.
Assessing the pecking order, Vasseur pints hope on the qualifying and race simulation carried out on Friday which had indicated that Ferrari are very much in the mix with Red Bull and Mercedes right behind the field-leading McLaren.
"As for positives from the weekend, we had strong pace on Friday in both qualifying and race trim, matching Mercedes and Red Bull, just a bit behind McLaren.
“It’s also good that in a few days we will be back on track, which means that very soon we will be able to evaluate our potential once again. It’s a very long season and we just have to continue to work hard."
