This year’s Ferrari proved to be much better readable and drivable on long drives. According to Ferrari boss Vasseur, this is the main reason for the success of Sainz and Leclerc last weekend in Melbourne.
Ferrari surprised last weekend in Australia when its drivers dominated the race. Carlos Sainz drove to his first victory of the year just 14 days after an appendix operation, and Charles Leclerc rounded off Ferrari’s success with second place. According to team boss Vasseur, it’s because this year’s SF-24 car has proven to be much more predictable and kinder to the tires than last year.
Last year, both pilots of the Italian team had to struggle with tires whose controllability was reduced by inconsistent and unpredictable behavior even between sets of the same compound.
According to Fred Vasseur, Ferrari has improved since last year not so much in speed itself, but rather in how the car is handled now.
“I took a big step forward. Perhaps in one lap speed, because it is true that last year we were nowhere fast for one lap. But we made a big step forward mainly in the consistency between the two runs. Between the first and second stints, the car now drives much better.”
“The car has become much more readable for our drivers, and also much easier for further development. That’s probably the biggest step we’ve made compared to last year. We still have something that is not easy to drive, but at least we manage to get a good overview of the car in the relatively early part of the weekend.”
Vasseur also says it’s now much easier for pilots to take care of tires within a single stint.
“Last year the main problem was that the car was very difficult to drive during the race. As we were forced to accelerate, we made mistakes and damaged the tires. This is such a negative spiral.”
“I think this year it’s a lot easier to read the car, know where it’s limits are and stay a little bit below them. It is also easier to work with tires.”
“This year the drivers can keep the cars in much more control than last year when they were driving in a bit of survival mode. This killed the tires quite quickly,” adds the head of Ferrari.
