After a promising start to the year, Ferrari find themselves in familiar territory – losing ground in the development race. The upgrades introduced in Spain have triggered the team’s relative decline, with the SF-24 relegated to the fourth-fastest car. However, team principal Fred Vasseur sees the situation from a different perspective.
Vasseur: Ferrari have done “a decent job”
The Hungarian GP was a disappointing, though at least not catastrophic, race for the Scuderia.
Leclerc and Sainz showed solid enough pace, taking home points for the team during a relatively anonymous weekend.
With that said, the Hungaroring is a circuit that – in light of Ferrari’s recent struggles – should have suited the SF-24 well.
Therefore, the performance gap to McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes is significant.
After all, it seems likely the deficit between Ferrari and other top teams will increase at other circuits.
Despite this, Fred Vasseur believes the development from Maranello has been praiseworthy over the last year:
“At the end, we had quite strong pace on Sunday,” MotorsportWeek quotes him as saying.
“Last year, we finished 65 seconds behind Red Bull, and this weekend, we are 20 seconds behind the leader…
“I think, in the last 12 months, we did a decent job.
“Now, it’s not enough – it’s clear that McLaren was faster than us. And they were faster than us by two or three-tenths all the weekend.
“But looking after where we are coming back and the last two or three events, we did a good recovery.
“And now let’s be focused on the next one. We need to do a step in performance, but we are on the right way.”
Of course, Ferrari’s team principal should hardly be expected to disparage their personnel’s efforts in the factory.
Maintaining high morale is always important but is especially necessary during times of hardship.
Still, it must be said that Vasseur’s comments are a very lenient analysis of the current trajectory at the Scuderia.
Having started 2024 as the closest challengers to Red Bull, Ferrari are now the slowest of the front-running teams.
Had Ferrari maintained their early-season form and introduced effective upgrades, they could legitimately be leading the Constructors Championship.
Considering the relatively limited impact of Red Bull’s recent updates, there is also reason to believe they can be vulnerable in what remains of 2024.
Unfortunately for Ferrari, it seems they will not be the team to capitalise on the reigning Champion’s struggles.
