Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the Japanese Grand Prix highlighted the amount of progress the team has made with its high-speed performance in 2024.
Carlos Sainz finished third and Charles Leclerc fourth behind the two Red Bulls on a Suzuka track where Leclerc was some 44 seconds adrift of Max Verstappen six months ago. With Sainz just over 20s off Verstappen last Sunday, Vasseur says the improvements are clear to see even on tracks where Ferrari is not able to challenge for victory.
“I think we made a huge step forward on the high speed compared to last year, and for sure Suzuka is a good example,” Vasseur said. “On the tire management, we have our weaknesses — for sure it was a compromise [to improve it]. You take from somewhere and then somewhere else…
“But overall, if you compare with Red Bull, the last four events last year and the first four events this season, it’s a decent step forward. For sure they are a little bit ahead, but the target for us is to put them under pressure, because with pressure you are doing more mistakes.”
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Vasseur has previously highlighted a strength of Ferrari this year being in how predictable the car is, allowing the team to start each race weekend with a strong baseline setup and improve from that point. With the next round in China being the first sprint weekend of the year and featuring just one practice session, Vasseur says the signs are encouraging that it will play to that strength but doesn’t want his team taking anything for granted.
“What is a bit difficult on the format of China is with the tire allocation,” he said. “[In] one session, you have to choose which compound you will test on Friday. It means the anticipation of the weekend is crucial. Last year, the sprint races overall went well, but we still don’t know if it’s related to the format or the track layout.
“So far, we always had a good start to the weekend, and we have the capacity to be ready from the first session. It’s so tight… [last] weekend, we had four teams within one tenth. You don’t have to consider that what you did one weekend will be true the weekend after — you start from scratch next week. We have to keep this mindset.”