Scuderia Ferrari returns home with a fourth and sixth place at the Hungarian Grand Prix achieved by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Ferrari neither fought for the victory nor reached the podium, but the signals given by the SF-24 cars, especially Charles Leclerc’s during the race, were more than encouraging compared to the last 4 summer outings.
At the end of the Budapest race, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur spoke to Sky Sport to comment on the race, also anticipating that, probably after the August summer break, the team will announce the new technical organization following the recent departure of Enrico Cardile, who moved to Aston Martin Racing.
Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari race was definitely better than expected after yesterday’s qualifying…
“The race went quite well. Congratulations to McLaren, who were very strong. We had a good fight with McLaren and Mercedes and I think we got the most out of this weekend. Charles had a very good start, we started well and he was very strong in both the first and especially the second stint with the Hards. He struggled with the Mediums in the last stint, but overall we had a good weekend. We still need to make a small step forward in performance. Last year we finished 65 seconds behind Red Bull and this year 20 seconds behind McLaren. It’s a step forward, but there’s still work to be done.”
Why did you decide to have such a short middle stint with Charles Leclerc?
“If you’re out with the same tire as the person in front and you’re a bit faster, you can’t overtake. And if you’re on the same strategy as the person in front you have no chance. We tried to undercut Max but Hamilton also pitted with us. We knew we were being aggressive, but we preferred to give it a try.”
McLaren had to make a tough decision today between Piastri and Norris. What would you have done in their place?
“In their place, I would have enjoyed the one-two finish! It’s a nice problem to have. I understand what happened. The team was decisive though. I know it must not have been easy for Norris, but in the end I think it was the right decision to let Piastri pass and win. The team’s decision was to swap positions at the end.”
Do you think Ferrari has any problems after the announcement of Enrico Cardile’s departure to Aston Martin?
“I can announce that after the summer break we will announce the new organization. For us it’s not a drama.”
When will we see a Ferrari consistently fighting for the podium again like in the first part of the season?
“We are already back in a position to go for the podium. Today we fought with Red Bull and Mercedes. It’s more difficult to stay behind McLaren but it’s a matter of tenths of a second. We hope to have tracks more suited to our car. Things will change from track to track. Mercedes was on pole last race and won, while here, performance-wise, they were the fourth force. I think things will continue this way until the end. It’s important to score many points when you’re not at the top and today we did a good job in this sense.”
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Today a very different Charles Leclerc compared to previous days, great race from him…
“Leclerc certainly didn’t have a great Friday, but today he came back strong with great pace. He fought with Max and Lewis and I think he had a great race.”
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