21/05/2024
NEWS STORY
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur left frustrated as despite raft of upgrades it is McLaren that appears to have the edge.
After Friday's sessions the Frenchman had plenty to smile about, as Charles Leclerc has dominated both sessions and Max Verstappen was clearly struggling.
But come qualifying and the not only was the Dutchman back on form, but McLaren clearly had the edge of Ferrari and looked the only team likely to take the fight to the Dutchman.
And that is how it proved to be, with Lando Norris giving Red Bull a late scare and Leclerc unhappy with straight-line speed and the SF-24 still missing out on single-lap pace.
"Overall, it's a kind of mixed feeling for me, because I think we did a step forward, but McLaren did probably the same as us," said Vasseur.
"We compensate I think partly the delta with Red Bull and we are not far away now," he added, admitting that it was in qualifying where his team lost out.
"I'm a bit frustrated," he said, "because I think that if we did one-two in qualifying we would do in the race. If we missed something it was in qualifying and not in the race."
With just one DRS zone at Imola - and shortened this year compared to 2022 - overtaking was always going to be a problem, hence the need for a strong qualifying performance.
However, the Frenchman admits that as a whole the weekend demonstrated that Red Bull is under pressure, which can only be good, not only for the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, but the sport also.
"It's good news for me, good news for F1, good news for the championship," he said. "You have three teams within seven seconds after 63 laps, which is less than one-tenth a lap. It was almost the same from the beginning of the weekend.
"I think that the competition will be everywhere," he continued. "The set-up of the car will be crucial next week in Monaco, the performance of the driver will be crucial.
"What is true is that we are at the point now where we will have to speed up the development. Imagine that someone could bring an upgrade one race before when you have three teams within one-tenth, you can jump from P5 to P1. It means we will have to speed up the time to market.
"We did only seven races out of 24, which means there are still 17 to go. At this point of the season last year we were 100 points behind Aston Martin and we finished 100 points in front of them. It means that the end of the championship is never after race seven and it's even more true this season, because the gap is very close.
"It's not very often that you have six or potentially eight cars who could win a race. It means that when you are not in a good shape you can move from P1 to P8, and in P8 you are scoring almost zero. It means that the championship can change in one or two weekends.
"It's still 17 weekends to go, let's be focused on Monaco, don't think about the championship, or at least it's what I will tell to my guys tomorrow... It's very, very difficult to predict Monaco. What I can say is that I will have two drivers who are motivated. So far we always were competitive in Monaco, but again, this one is very, very difficult to predict."