Ferrari Formula 1 boss Fred Vasseur believes the Bahrain Grand Prix demonstrated that the team has halved the deficit to Red Bull compared to 12 months ago.
Red Bull continued where it left off last term at the 2024 season-opener with Max Verstappen landing a Grand Slam as he led team-mate Sergio Perez in a 1-2 finish.
But while Carlos Sainz trailed 25 seconds behind Verstappen in third, the Spaniard had come home fourth and 48s adrift of the Dutchman in the previous Bahrain GP.
Despite Red Bull appearing in commanding shape to retain both championships, Vasseur highlights the narrowed gap as evidence that Ferrari has made progress.
Although he was less satisfied with the seismic brake temperature issue that hindered the other car, Vasseur took Charles Leclerc’s fourth place as another positive.
When asked about the contrasting fortunes on either side of the Ferrari garage, Vasseur commented: “You can say, a bit of a mixed feeling after the race for sure.
“The positive is that we were able to do the pole position yesterday with the fastest lap of the session [Leclerc’s Q2 time was faster than Verstappen’s Q3 effort].
“And perhaps that we compensated 50% of the gap with Red Bull in the race, compared to one year ago, because then we were at 50-something seconds in the race.
“The negative is that it’s not enough, and that we had again, too many issues during the weekend. We need to fix the issue on Charles’s car with the brakes.
“But I think overall he did a very good job, and then from the pitwall also, because we were able to manage the situation to save P4 in these conditions.
“Honestly, during the first stint when I saw the situation, I was not very optimistic.”
Explaining how the problem impacted Leclerc’s race, Vasseur added: “We had a huge delta of temperature between left and right. It was pulling on the braking, and locking, and it was very difficult to fix it. And at one stage it came back when he was in the slipstream of someone. The brakes switched on, and the last part of the race was OK.”
Ferrari had pursued a complete revamp with its 2024 challenger, the SF-24, as it sought to produce a more compliant base that improved the team’s fortunes in race trim.
“This is also a mixed feeling. One year ago, I think in the race we were at eight/nine-tenths, perhaps today we did 50% of the gap,” Vasseur reiterated.
“But again, we are not there to be at four-tenths.”
Having addressed the wind-sensitive issues that plagued its predecessor, Vasseur is convinced Ferrari is in a stronger position to adopt an aggressive development plan.
“But if you compare with last year, and the recovery that we had during the season, the fact that we are able to fight with them in the last part, I think we have a good opportunity,” he continued.
“It’s also a much better base to develop this year. I think the car is much easier for them to feel the car, from where we are weak and where we can improve. Last year it was much more difficult to have a good read on the car.”
Vasseur also denied that Ferrari was fixating on closing the remaining margin to Red Bull, insisting that Ferrari must assess where it stands on other track configurations.
“First I’m not focused on Red Bull, I’m focused on myself and to try to get the best from what we have,” he asserted.
“It was not completely a clean sheet for us this weekend, we had too many small issues in quali yesterday, in the race today.
“And also we have to consider that Jeddah will be a completely different story, it’s not the same layout, and it’s not the same tarmac.
“And we will have a better picture on the global situation after Melbourne probably, I would say. Before Melbourne it will be difficult to have a clear picture of the championship.”
