Ferrari Formula 1 boss Frederic Vasseur praised the “huge” step the team’s made to take a 1-2 in Australia as he claimed he’s “not interested” in comparions to Red Bull.
Ferrari became the first team to beat Red Bull this season as Carlos Sainz was victorious in Melbourne from team-mate Charles Leclerc, who also took the fastest lap.
The Italian marque has now closed to within four points of Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, and Vasseur was pleased with its execution of the weekend.
“I think we did not only a good race, but we had a smooth weekend from the beginning,” Vasseur said.
“It’s probably Friday also that we build up [to] the win today. We’re doing a smooth weekend from FP1, from the first half without any issues.”
Ferrari had emerged as the closest challenger to Red Bull in the opening two races, but Leclerc had still trailed 18 seconds behind Verstappen’s RB20 in Saudi Arabia.
But despite missing out on pole position to Verstappen, Ferrari had seemed a match for Red Bull at the Albert Park Circuit and capitalised on the Dutchman’s retirement.
Asked whether he had an explanation for the contrasting patterns of the two teams, Vasseur responded: “No, I’m not focused at all on the performance of Red Bull.
“I’m focused on the performance of our car. We made a huge step forward, perhaps in the pace of one lap that is true, but we were nowhere last year on the one lap pace.
“We made a huge step, I think it’s more the consistency between the two compounds.”
Ferrari has succeeded in pursuing a more benign base with its revamped car concept for 2024, leaving Vasseur optimistic for both its short and long-term prospects.
“The car is much easier to drive, much easier to read for the drivers, by the way much easier to develop,” he continued.
“It’s probably the biggest step that we did compared to last year, something that we cannot easily manage, but at least to have a good read of the car quite early into the weekend.”
Vasseur admitted the result – Ferrari’s first 1-2 finish since Bahrain 2022 – will provide a boost to the team to add to the momentum that it built up at the end of last term.
The Frenchman, now in his second season at the helm, contends the Maranello-based squad must aim to replicate its Australia weekend to take the battle to Red Bull.
“Confidence is a huge part of the result in your business,” he proclaimed.
“I think we are building up the confidence over the last month, that it was already the case in the last part of the season last year.
“This weekend I think it’s good evidence that when we are putting everything together – and I’m not sure that we’ll be able to do it every single weekend – that when we are putting everything together, we can put them a little bit under pressure. And it’s when they are under pressure that they will also have more mistakes, that means we have to continue in this direction.
“We are much, much more confident on the fact that we can manage this kind of event because that’s from lap one, day one, that we were there.
“We were performing and it was quite smooth and it’s this situation that we are doing the best car for the Sunday.”
