Ferrari boss, Frederic Vasseur has one demand of his team's engineers, he doesn't want any bullsh*tting.

His call comes just days after Franz Tost said that he doesn't trust the engineers at AlphaTauri.

While a 10-place grid penalty compromised Charles Leclerc's Saudi Grand Prix before a wheel had even turned, the Monegasque and his team still had hope that he could challenge for a podium.

However, once he and his teammate switched to the hard compound their race effectively came to an end as the pair were reduced to running together in sixth and seventh.

Other than poor pace, the Italian team is also concerned at reliability, leaving Vasseur with a mammoth task on his hands.

As the team regroups ahead of the trip down under, the Frenchman was asked what his main priority will be when he sits down with his engineers.

"To not bullshit ourselves," he replied.

"The most important thing in this kind of situation is to know where we are going well and what we are doing wrong," he continued.

"We cannot bullshit ourselves. We have to change. We have to understand where we are wrong, and we have to push. It's not enough to speak, we will not be faster like this.

"For me the picture is quite clear," he added. "The potential of the car is good, but it's not enough compared to Red Bull, because we are not able to extract the maximum from the car every time.

"The first stint went pretty well and Charles had a good comeback," he said of the race, "but he was with the soft and nobody knows about the different compound. Carlos was in a decent pace on the first stint with the medium, compared to the others, but we lost completely the ground with the hard.

"It's where we have to understand that the main issue is," he continued. "If we have some improvement to do, it's clearly on the management of the different compounds."

While relatively at ease with the SF-23's performance in qualifying, Vasseur admits that due to its reliability concerns the team is unable to maintain that level throughout the weekend.

"I don't want to push on the positive side, because the outcome of the weekend is not good and we have to be focused on what is going wrong, not on the positives," he said. "But I have to keep in mind, to do a proper analysis, of what is going well and I think that qualifying went pretty well.

"For sure we always want to do a better job, and it was difficult to know exactly what was the potential of the Red Bull because Max didn't do the Q3. But at least I had the feeling that compared to Mercedes and Aston Martin we did a step forward. We were one-tenth off, they were three and four tenths I think, and I think we are on the right way in terms of development.

"But potential is one thing, and I think on the potential side we did a decent step. The issue is we have to stay at this maximum potential all over the weekend, and it's not what we are doing today.

"I think on some occasions we are there. But on some occasions, or some stints of the weekend, we are not able to be at the maximum of our possibility."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by elsiebc, 25/03/2023 16:58

"Fred may be just what this team needs... hopefully."

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2. Posted by Max Noble, 21/03/2023 11:19

"Welcome to Plant Ferrari Frederic… Possibly a lack of due diligence on your part…"

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3. Posted by trackrecords, 20/03/2023 23:49

"What ever Mercedes' woes, at least they haven't got a national newspaper owned by Fiat - La Stampa - no doubt baying for blood and heads on poles..."

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4. Posted by alvarezh3, 20/03/2023 22:50

"@ ToeKnee

Everyone wether it started with the medium or the soft (soft only Leclerc & Norris) finished with the hard, that indicates that no other tire compound would have lasted (tire degradation issue) competitively to the end on a one stop strategy.

Hamilton and Sargeant started on hards and finished on mediums, same compounds as most (except Leclerc and Norris) but inverted in their use.

Courtesy of Pitpass:

https://www.pitpass.com/74754/Saudi-Arabian-GP-Driver-Tyre-Strategies"

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5. Posted by ToeKnee, 20/03/2023 21:52

"LeClerc went 16 laps on the red, while still cutting time from the yellow tired Sainz on lap 15 (he pitted one lap earlier on the yellows actually, another crazy event). I don't think the tire degradation was the issue. Hearing the announcer say that the yellows only lasted 16 laps last year, all the time watching LeClerc go 16 on the reds, was pretty funny. Different year, different tire, different cars. On top of everything else, no one was doing long runs in the dark on any of these tires, before the race. So maybe ole fashion "gut feeling" tire management was in order!!??"

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6. Posted by Rock Doc, 20/03/2023 20:27

"@ JamesD Unfortunately, if things continue this way, he may not have long."

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7. Posted by BrightonCorgi, 20/03/2023 19:39

"Ferrari are their own worst enemy most of the time."

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8. Posted by JamesD, 20/03/2023 16:49

"Some refreshing honesty from Monsieur Vasseur, long may it continue"

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9. Posted by alvarezh3, 20/03/2023 16:47

"By now everyone on the garages knows S.F. has tire degradation issues. They were forced to install the white walls or they would not go to the end. The other alternative would of have been red-red-yellow for Leclerc and yellow-red-red for Sainz on a two stopper but they didn't have the pace to gap themselves for such a strategy.

Or they -very quickly- fix their tire woes, or they are doomed, they would not even finish second on the championship.

BTW, have we noticed that even on such a fast track, no driver was complaining about porpoising? I know about the "lift" of the chassis by the regulations, that helps, but still, that alone would not of solved the oscillations 100%. Good work of those F1 engineers!"

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10. Posted by ToeKnee, 20/03/2023 14:48

"Ferrari only know what the TV said before the race, white tires. In the real world, people who adjust to the race, thinking humans, not tech dependent idiots. Knew the white sucked just by watching Hamilton. To Mercedes credit, they dumped the white tires quickly. One can only scream at the TV to put on the yellows, and then turn the race off once the whites went on. It's not just racing however, the supposed "brilliant" people of the earth, are the dumbest "brilliant" people in the history of the world. They are hardly ever correct about anything. "

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No bullsh*tting, demands Vasseur

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