Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is targeting three circuits after the summer break that he believes could be particularly strong opportunities take points off Red Bull and McLaren – but the team needs to get through Zandvoort without giving away too much ground first.
Red Bull leads the constructors’ championship by 42 points from McLaren, with Ferrari 21 points further back in third place during the mid-season shutdown. An upgrade introduced in Spain had created issues with bouncing and set Ferrari back, but there were signs of improvement in Belgium, and Vasseur says a solid weekend in Zandvoort is needed before the team might be more competitive in the following rounds.
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“To fix the bouncing is a step in performance,” Vasseur said. “For sure we are pushing like hell to bring something, and we will do it as soon as possible. I think we also have a good sequence of tracks for us, with Monza, Baku and Singapore. These are good tracks for the characteristics of the car, but the most important is to score points.
“This was the target coming to Spa – to not lose points to McLaren and Red Bull – and we did it. It will be the same target in Zandvoort, because I’m convinced that the next three or four races after these two will be much better for us.”
Although the bouncing has been an area of focus for Ferrari, Vasseur says the way Mercedes turned around its weekend in Belgium shows how small gains can have a huge impact on results this season.
“I think [Belgium] was a very good example for everybody, because Mercedes was really struggling on Friday – when we say struggling, it was that they were probably at the back of the pack but by two tenths – and it means as soon as you fix something or you do a small step, you can recover from P7 or P8 to P1 or P2.
“It’s why we are pushing and the fact that we have to pay attention to every single detail. It’s not like two years ago, when if you were finishing P4 or P7, you were finishing 60 seconds behind Max Verstappen.
“In Budapest we finished in the same position as one year ago, but we are not at 65 seconds anymore, we are at 20. Now we need to keep everything under control, to not overreact, to pay attention to details. I’m quite positive.”