The first stage of the season in Bahrain ended unsuccessfully for the Ferrari team – Charles Leclerc retired due to a power plant failure and his teammate Carlos Sainz, due to high rubber breakdown and lack of speed over a long distance, failed to take third place in the battle against Fernando Alonso. In an interview, the head of the Scuderia, Frederic Vasseur, summed up the results of the weekend that were disappointing for the team.
Q: Frederic, what happened to Charles’ car?
Frederick Vasseur: There was a problem with the power plant, but we don’t know the exact cause yet. I hope we find the answer to this question soon, but the team is of course disappointed with this outcome.
We couldn’t put a fight on Red Bull, but Charles was comfortably in third – it could be a good result for the team, but what is is. We need to improve reliability and speed on a long set of circles. The car is fast in a fast lap, but you have to add the distance of the race.
Question: How is the mood in the team now?
Frederick Vasseur: Normal. There are still 22 races to go and we initially wanted to avoid being both too optimistic and too pessimistic after the first leg. We know there is a long season ahead, we know it will be difficult, but now we need to analyze and improve the current situation.
Q: Do you think Charles would have ended up ahead of Fernando without the retirement?
Frederick Vasseur: Yes, Charles kept the situation under control.
Question: Can this be considered a cause for optimism?
Frederick Vasseur: You are definitely more optimistic than me! (laughs) No, we are really concerned about reliability issues and speed over long distances compared to Red Bull. Of course there are also positive results from the weekend – we are fast on one lap and Charles had a strong first half of the race.
Q: All weekend it seemed that Carlos couldn’t find an approach to the car…
Frederick Vasseur: He had a normal weekend, showing some high speed at times. It’s a matter of time and trust.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
