Ferrari Formula 1 boss Frederic Vasseur declared there should be no “excuses” after admitting the team’s race preparations in the Chinese Grand Prix were “quite bad”.
The Maranello-based squad’s 100% podium record at the beginning of the 2024 season was curtailed in Shanghai as McLaren’s Lando Norris split the Red Bull drivers.
Despite an underwhelming one-lap pace leaving Ferrari with work to do from sixth and seventh, Charles Leclerc was optimistic about the side’s speed in race conditions.
But Leclerc was unable to provide a challenge to Norris’ McLaren in the latter stages despite a Safety Car intervention, trailing 10 seconds further back in fourth place.
Despite Vasseur suggesting that the re-laid asphalt upon F1’s return to the Shanghai International Circuit was a hindrance, he hinted that Ferrari got it wrong on set-up.
“I think nobody came to a test day one month ago in Shanghai. he told Formu1a.uno.
“It’s true that it was the first time that we came back in Shanghai with this type of generation of car. And the coating or painting on the tarmac probably didn’t help, because I think we had a huge track evolution over the weekend.
“But again it’s absolutely not an excuse, everybody had the same situation, and some teams managed it better than some others.
“We have to understand if we can do a better job in the preparation, but I think this one was quite bad.”
Ferrari is scheduled to bring some new parts to its SF-24 car at the next round in Miami ahead of a substantial upgrade package at the team’s first home race at Imola.
However, Vasseur has cautioned that the effectiveness of the Italian marque’s updates will be redundant in the circumstances where it fails to maximise its prospects.
“It’s more a matter of extracting the best of what we have,” he expressed.
“And honestly, we are speaking about development, but first, as a team, we have to get the best from what we have. We didn’t do the job this weekend on this.”
Nevertheless, Vasseur conceded that Ferrari’s subpar pace on low fuel was the determining factor that stopped Leclerc or Carlos Sainz improving on fourth and fifth.
“Well, it’s not a good help to lose a position at the start, but at the end we are behind Perez and Norris at the start, and we finish behind them at the end of the race,” he said.
“I think if we lose something today, it’s more on the last stint.
“And if we miss something today, it’s to start from too far away on the grid, for sure. This is more yesterday.
“And today we were a bit less performant, I think, on the Hard than on the Medium.”
Leclerc had expressed bemusement that he ended up losing up to “half-a-second” per lap to Norris on the Hard tyre once the race restarted on Lap 30 until the end.
Vasseur has echoed the Monegasque’s comments, citing that Ferrari had it “under control” on the Medium compound but then “lost ground” to its rivals on the Hard.
While Leclerc made his sole pit stop under the Virtual Safety Car, Sainz had changed compounds beforehand and was made to complete an extended stint to the end.
“We stopped three, four laps before the Virtual Safety Car, which then became the Safety Car,” the Frenchman recalled.
“Carlos therefore feared he would have to do a long stint on the Hard, but he did well. He was a bit conservative at the start, but then managed the rest of the stint well.
