Despite the erratic, inconsistent behaviour of the SF23, Ferrari boss, Frederic Vasseur insists his team can still challenge Mercedes.

Barcelona saw the Scuderia's much-anticipated update, however by the end of the weekend the Italian team was unsure whether it had made progress or not.

Throughout the weekend, Charles Leclerc, in particular, had been critical of the car's erratic behaviour and inconsistency, even more so during the race when his car reacted differently on two different sets of the same tyre compound. This, despite the fact the team had changed the rear end of his car after qualifying due to his unhappiness with its handling.

Vasseur was quick to defend the upgrade which included new sidepods, rear wing and floor body.

"You can't compare Miami and Barcelona in terms of layout, tarmac and energy on the tyres, but I would say that the global picture is the same," he told Sky Sports.

"We are there in qualifying, and we are not there in the race," he insisted. "We are still inconsistent on the same car between compounds and sometimes between the same compounds.

"We have 1,000 people working on this now," he continued, "and it is very difficult to understand and to fix it because it's not always the same problem. It's true that in qualifying, you are in free air and in the race you are not. I think Charles struggled a lot in the first stint as he was a lot closer to the car in front of him.

"The main issue for us is not the potential on the lap on high-speed corners, the main issue is the inconsistency. On Charles' car for example, between the first and third stints with the same compound, one the balance was out of place, and the last one was OK, and with Carlos, he did a decent first stint, and in the middle, he lost fifteen or twenty seconds.

"As soon as we unlock the situation with consistency we can imagine to fight with them (Mercedes) all over the race," he said. "With Red Bull, it's another story, especially with Verstappen. He is still much faster than us in qualifying, much faster in the race.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 12/06/2023 8:09

"Find myself agreeing with @kenji.
Ferrari corporately does know how to win & the F1 team's consistent failure is somewhat of a mystery to me given their successes elsewhere."

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2. Posted by kenji, 12/06/2023 2:12

"@ Fred....Yes, you may be able to fight but can you win? A quick trip to the Le Mans Ferrari garage is now in order. What a great way to make a comeback. Well done Ferrrari. Superb performance."

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3. Posted by gator, 10/06/2023 17:59

"Sorry guys I have lost all faith and only continue to read and hear how many ways you can describe FAILURE. You can't fight your way out of a wet paper bag. LH would be a fool to join and the two guys would be fools to stay"

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4. Posted by Tuinhuis, 09/06/2023 22:19

"@Max Noble: "…and our next team principal is…" I've got a two weeks leave comming up from my dayjob... I could fail at the job at a fraction of the cost as well as any recent team principal...

In all honesty, and as much as we would wish otherwise, they are at least realistic that RB is out of reach. And as long as there is no higher management acceptance that there is no short-term solution. I don't see Ferrari breaking the cycle they have been on since Kimi's well deserved championship (made possible by McLaren's internal combustion)... Although there is quite a lot of individual potential, the "Ferrari-way" of running the team seems to prevent actual championship challeging results from materialising.

*Disclaimer: I'm Dutch and will do my best at taking part in the discussion in English, but some details might be lost in translation*"

We can fight with Mercedes, insists Vasseur

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