10/06/2023
NEWS STORY
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.