Ferrari need a reset, and Fred Vasseur thinks the calendar has just handed them one.
Twenty-four hours after the Italian Grand Prix collapsed on them, the Scuderia head into the first Formula 1 race in Madrid for more than 45 years looking for something salvageable. Their team principal is not promising anything. He is pointing at the map.
“Certainly, the track layout probably suits what we have today a little better, and we can expect something more next week,” the Frenchman told reporters, in comments transcribed by Scuderia Fans.
He guarded the flank immediately.
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“It’s far too early to think about Madrid and have expectations. I first need to digest the weekend.”
Two laps that ruined Ferrari’s Sunday
There was a lot to digest. Leclerc lost the car at the final corner on lap two of Sunday’s race and hit the barrier hard enough to bring out the red flag. Hamilton, running fourth, had already gone into the gravel at the second chicane on the opening lap trying to come up the inside of his team-mate, and dropped deep into the pack.
Hamilton eventually finished sixth, 24.6 seconds behind winner Kimi Antonelli, who climbed from 19th on the grid to give Mercedes an Italian home victory Monza will remember.
The straight-line deficit had been the concern going in. Vasseur admitted the reality went further than the model.
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“We were losing positions without being able to respond, and we were forced to demand too much from the tires in the corners, wearing them out before the others.”
No thank-you for the Tifosi
Ferrari had gone to Monza with upgrades and a plan to reward the crowd. Sunday buried both.
“And with all the Tifosi this weekend, we were expecting to give them something else as a big thank you for all the support and enthusiasm that they have.”
“Be sure that we’ll come back next week much stronger.”
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Vasseur has grouped Madrid with Sepang and Baku as circuits he expects to suit the SF-26 better than Monza did, saying in a separate assessment that “Madrid, Sepang and Baku will be a different story. We knew that Monza, because of its layout, would be the worst circuit for us.”
Team orders still on the table
Vasseur did not close the door on the opening-lap contact between his drivers returning as an internal matter.
“The outcome of Turns 1 and 2 wasn’t positive for the team. If the question now is whether there will be a team order or something like that, I think it’s still too early.”
“At some point you have to make a decision. But I think it was too early to do it before Monza. Now we’ll have time to discuss it.”
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The Madring itself is a 5.4km layout wound around the IFEMA exhibition centre in north-east Madrid, with 22 turns and a banked corner named La Monumental after the city’s Las Ventas bullring. Race day is Sunday, 13 September, the last day of a weekend that runs from Friday, 11 September.
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