Ferrari lost more ground to Mercedes and Red Bull in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and 10th on the road, Hamilton having had to fight his way through from last on the grid after being slowest in qualifying.
Though the blow might seem to have been softened slightly by both drivers gaining places through McLaren’s double disqualification, actually Mercedes benefitted more in terms of points because its drivers were both ahead of Leclerc.
Following Ferrari’s double DNF in Brazil, chairman John Elkann publicly criticising both drivers, Hamilton’s qualifying howler, and Leclerc pointing out a longstanding weakness in his cars’ wet-weather performance, this has led to a sense of an organisation in turmoil.
But team principal Frederic Vasseur argued that these dramas have skewed perceptions of the season as a whole – despite Leclerc’s comment after Las Vegas qualifying that the SF-25 was a car he «will not miss» when he egresses from the cockpit for the last time in Abu Dhabi.
«For sure we are not in the situation that we didn’t score points the last weekend,» Vasseur said, «but we were P2 in the championship two weeks ago.
«It’s not that it was a complete disaster – for me disaster is not the right word – but the tough side is that the last two weekends that we scored six or seven points on two weekends.»
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Jeff Speer / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Vasseur was speaking before McLaren’s disqualification; Ferrari scored six points in Brazil, all in the sprint, and would have scored nine in Las Vegas had the original result stood.
Nevertheless, Ferrari dropped to third in the constructors’ standings after the Brazil sprint, then was overtaken by Red Bull after the race. It now resides in fourth, and to be overtaken by Red Bull – effectively a one-car team – must be particularly galling.
«Before this in the championship we were in front of Mercedes and Red Bull – it means that it’s not so dramatic,» continued Vasseur.
«Now I can perfectly understand the drivers, they want to get more. And trust me that in the debriefing on the Monday morning at the factory I’m also a bit harsh.
«But it’s our DNA that we want to get more in any case. And I think Max [Verstappen], he will try also to get more from his team, from everybody to do a better job. This is the DNA of everybody into the paddock, it’s not a drama.»
It is not just that the SF-25 has proved capricious, difficult to set up, and particularly slow in wet conditions; team operations have not been as slick as they might have been.
Hamilton’s exit from Q1 was partly a factor of him misjudging Turn 14 on his final lap and collecting the apex bollard, but also a result of a communications misfire between him and engineer Riccardo Adami. In hindsight – always a prism of crystal clarity – Adami ought to have been more emphatic that the timing was tight to get another lap in. Had he done so, Hamilton might not have backed off the throttle after crossing the line.
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari
Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images
Leclerc, meanwhile, suffered through being undercut by Oscar Piastri after stopping three laps later, an outcome the Ferrari pitwall should have seen coming. That consigned him to a DRS train in the run to the flag.
It’s fair to say that this scenario was trickier to read, since Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli – the leader of that DRS train – was the only driver to start on soft-compound Pirellis, and had pitted off them after just two laps, so it was by no means a given that he would not have to stop again. But if Leclerc had crossed the finishing line two-tenths of a second sooner he would have been classified ahead of Antonelli, who had a five-second penalty coming.
«The issue is that we were not sure about the tyres,» said Vasseur, «as we didn’t long-stint the [hard-compound] tyres on Friday or Thursday [owing to changeable weather and other disruptions].
«We were not sure about the life of the tyres and to anticipate the pitstop, I’m not sure. And I don’t want to speak for Mercedes, Toto [Wolff] or Kimi – I don’t know if they were expecting to do one stint, or if they were expecting to pit again.
«But it’s true that we realised during the race that we could go longer and, yeah, probably if you had to redo the strategy now you can say, OK, perhaps if we stopped the lap before Piastri it would have been better.
«But this is always very easy to do after the race.»
‘Disaster’ may not be an appropriate word but ‘sub-optimal’ appositely sums up a disappointing season characterised by missed opportunities, no grand prix wins, and senior executives steering from the back seat.
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