Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says he was surprised by McLaren’s approach to the Italian Grand Prix that opened the door for Charles Leclerc to take victory.
Leclerc had already taken advantage of the two McLarens fighting on the first lap to overtake Lando Norris for second place, but the pace of the first stint also caught Ferrari out because it was targeting a one-stop strategy. Pitting Leclerc early to respond to Norris’ first pit stop could have changed that approach, but Vasseur says it soon became clear Ferrari could still run to the end and secure a famous win.
“I’m trying on the pit wall to avoid thinking about if it’s possible or not,” Vasseur said. “We are managing the gap, we are giving target lap times to the drivers and not thinking too much if it’s possible or not.
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“But it’s true that the race was quite strange because we started aiming for one stop and then McLaren pushed a bit more than expected in the first stint. And then Norris struggled before us and he had to pit, we wanted to cover him and to stay in the same race as them because we had the feeling at this stage that we had an advantage on the tires.
“But the advantage was so good that after 10 laps with the hard [tire] it was clear for us that we could go until the end. Then you never know, because you can have a cliff at one stage. But it was not the case and it was pretty well managed by the two guys, and at the end of the day they were able to achieve the target lap time each lap and very consistently.
“We are doing the calculation on what we could give up to Piastri each lap and to fix some target to Charles, and only in the last lap I said, ‘OK now we are safe’, because for the last lap we had something like four seconds and then you start to think about reliability. But we try to stay focused – it’s not always easy but it’s the most important thing to do and not to think too much about the podium, because that is a mistake.”
As much as Vasseur was trying to avoid emotions during the race itself, he says Monza is one of the most important races for Ferrari to win even if the points return is the same.
“For sure, it’s a good one,” he said. “For Ferrari and for Charles to win in Monaco, to win in Monza, I think probably with Imola they’re the two or three that you want to take in the season. But it’s more emotional than mathematical at the end of the day, you are [not] scoring more points in Monza than in Baku – mathematically speaking it’s a win.
“Emotionally speaking, for sure it’s very important because we had huge support from the beginning of the week, from the tifosi. Starting on Monday at the factory in Maranello, we had hundreds of people in front of the entrance, and the best way to pay them back was to win.
“It’s not ever easy, it’s not always under control, but it was the best way for the team to pay back everyone for their support.”