Austin, Oct 26 (IANS) Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur called the United States Grand Prix a good week despite the team missing out on a double podium at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
Team driver Charles Leclerc wanted more from the race after he finished P2 in Austin, while Lewis Hamilton finished P4 behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli won the race. “I don’t know if you had all the radio, but very early in the race, Charles was targeting P1,” Vasseur said, as quoted by F1. “And when you do P2, and you target P1, you are not happy. But this I like as a feeling.
“Honestly, at the end of the weekend, I think it’s a good week, a good result for us for the third or fourth race in a row; we are the team scoring the biggest amount of points.
“I think we are on the right track, but for sure, when you have this feeling that you are in a good shape on the weekend and you do P2, you can have also a bit of frustration. But the frustration sometimes is good,” he added.
Ferrari went for a two-stop strategy after both their drivers started on the soft compound of tyres to push early after starting the race P4 and P5. The team principal felt the strategy was the best.
“Today I think that it was between one and two stops. We had to be aggressive starting from P4, P5. It was a good call from us.
“Now when you start a bit behind, you start to have the dirty air, and you have to be a bit more aggressive. And without perhaps the Virtual Safety Car at the end, Lewis was perhaps able to come back on Max, I don’t know. Probably yes,” he added.
Ferrari have been doing well in the practice sessions this season, but have not been able to translate those outings into qualifying and races more often than not. Leclerc topped the timing sheets on Friday, and Hamilton was the fastest in FP3.
The two were fourth and fifth in qualifying. However, the Ferrari team boss felt that the Saturday result was also good, considering that others did not improve as well.
“But overall, I think it’s a good weekend in terms of pace and execution. Everything went well – except the last lap in Q3. It’s true for us, but if you have a look at (Saturday), I think it was quite particular that the two McLarens didn’t improve, Russell didn’t improve, and the two Red Bulls didn’t improve.
“I think what is true is that with the cars or the tyres, the window is very narrow, and as soon as you are a bit out, quickly you lose two or three tenths. And today in F1 (in) the top eight, two or three tenths can be a sixth position.
“It means that you can move from the super result to nowhere for a gust of wind, or you slide a little bit too much on the out lap, or you have to slow down, as we had the case in Madrid, you have to slow down a little bit, don’t stick to your pace on the out lap, or whatever, the impact is huge,” he added.
He also highlighted that the SF-26 package is doing well. “Pace was good,” he said. “For sure, the pace from the beginning when we put the car on track on Friday morning, to the last lap of the race, the pace was there.
“What we have to pay attention to is that competitiveness is not just about the package; it’s also the fact that sometimes set-up, tyre management, you are in the right spot, and you are doing a good weekend. And sometimes not.
“And if you have the package when you are not in the right spot, you can also have the feeling that it’s not working,” he added.
–IANS
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