Ferrari aims to close the gap to the field-leading McLaren in Jeddah
Ahead of this weekend's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur insisted that the Italian outfit will need to focus on maximizing its current package until it is able to mount a proper challenge for top positions.
Last Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix saw Ferrari start both drivers on new Medium tyres, unlike those around them that had all gone for used Softs. Starting from second, Charles Leclerc paid the price for this, losing places to George Russell and Lando Norris.
His team-mate Lewis Hamilton was running where he started in ninth place. When Oscar Piastri pitted for tyres on lap 14, Leclerc found himself in the lead with Hamilton second. The SF-25s made a double pit stop on lap 17, taking on another set of Mediums, with the Monegasque rejoining fifth, before immediately passing Pierre Gasly for fourth.
The seven-time F1 champion rejoined tenth and was immediately on the attack, catching and passing the group ahead, in the order Jack Doohan, Max Verstappen, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Esteban Ocon, getting as high as fifth when Gasly made his second stop.
Nearer the front, Leclerc was now the fastest driver on track, to the extent he caught and passed Norris for third place. At this point, the Ferraris were on fresher rubber than those around them, which gave them a degree of flexibility when it came to how long to extend the second stint and regarding which compound to use for the final stint.
However, a collision further down the order on lap 32 brought out the Safety Car, so that everyone dived into the pits for a pit stop that cost about half the usual time. At this point, there was no option but to pit for a final time, fitting Hards to both cars to go all the way to the chequered flag, having lost any advantage of being on fresher tyres.
In the closing stages, Leclerc began to struggle on his Hard tyres and Norris, in better shape on the Mediums overtook him with five laps remaining, so that Leclerc had to settle for fourth place, three seconds down while Hamilton finished the 57-lap race in P5.
Speaking ahead of the forthcoming race weekend in Jeddah, Ferrari team boss Frédéric Vasseur was left to praise the Scuderia's upgrade package introduced at last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix. Despite the slightly improved performance, the Frenchman is aware of the fact that the Maranello-based team still needs to further close the gap to the field-leading McLaren.
"The first triple-header of the season comes to an end in Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit which features very different characteristics in terms of layout and track surface compared to Bahrain last weekend.
"In Sakhir, we made small steps forward in terms of competitiveness, thanks to an improved car performance and a solid performance from the team in both qualifying and the race.
Vasseur continued: "Over these few days in Maranello, we’ve continued to work hard analysing the data, and we want to approach the Jeddah race with the same objective.
"We must stay focused on ourselves, as that is the best way to try to extract the maximum from the package at our disposal and make steady progress to close the gap that still separates us from those ahead in the standings.
