Vasseur: “Ferrari closer to Red Bull,” and glosses over the future of Leclerc and Sainz

A growing team, while the future of the pilots is not a priority.

Frederic Vasseur is focusing on Ferrari, not on the contracts of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Indeed, the team principal of the Cavallino, ahead of the return to the track for the Hungarian Grand Prix, focused on the SF-23’s progress (even those that will come in prospect), postponing talk about the future of the two drivers.

“Both after Australia and after Barcelona we took a good step forward, although some weaknesses continue to be there,” Vasseur explained about Ferrari, in an interview granted to ‘Motorsport.com.’ “It happens, when you introduce a new package and you lack the time to try it out, that you get the set-up wrong and don’t realize it right away. Now the progress is there, and it is crucial to understand how to exploit it.”

“We work to improve our weaknesses, which is a better approach than trying to copy the competition. At Silverstone then we started with intermediates and immediately switched to slicks, because we knew the weather situation was improving,” Vasseur continued. “Criticizing strategies from the outside is easy, but sometimes the mistakes come because the calculation of the laps you can do with certain compounds is wrong. The ones who make mistakes, then, are the tire makers.”

Then the important chapter on Leclerc and Sainz. “They both have a contract that lasts one more year,” Vasseur recalled. “The issue will have to be addressed, but not now. We will certainly talk about it in the future, but now we have other concerns. Everyone’s priority in Ferrari is to keep the focus on the team. Also because the gap with Red Bull is smaller, even though there are four teams behind Verstappen packed within a couple of tenths.”