Frederic Vasseur: Pole came as a surprise

Carlos Sainz won qualifying in Singapore, and his teammate Charles Leclerc will start from third position – such results were obviously very gratifying for Frederic Vasseur, the head of the Ferrari team, especially since the pole position on the city circuit was a pleasant surprise for was him.

Q: For the first time in his career, Carlos won two qualifications in a row – we can congratulate both him and the team! Moreover, Monza and Singapore are very different circuits…
Frederic Vasseur: Yes, we also experience different emotions. The stage in Monza was very important for us because everything happened for the tifosi. I can’t say we expected to win pole there, but this season, for example, we were fast on fast circuits, so we expected to be able to get to a good pace. To a lesser extent, we expected that we could win the qualifying in Singapore, so we are all the more happy.

Q: What was the team able to do with your car?
Frederic Vasseur: Not so much. I don’t want to talk about Max Verstappen this weekend, but if you look at the group of drivers who showed results from second to tenth place, it is clear that there is little difference between them. One or two tenths is enough to regain several positions. The extra confidence we felt after Monza helps us.

We showed good speed from the start of the weekend, Carlos has continuously climbed to the top and this always helps to gain confidence.

Question: According to Carlos, he is now having his best season in Formula 1 – have you helped him in any way?
Frederic Vasseur: If you remember how he performed at the beginning of the season, the difference is that from Monza he shows excellent speed from the very first lap of the first training session. And at the beginning of the year, Carlos had a more difficult time, as he had to use an extra set of tires in the first qualifying session to qualify for the second. But now he is preparing very well for the weekend.

Question: Are you saying it’s not so much the car, but the fact that Carlos has improved?
Frederic Vasseur: No, I believe you cannot separate the car and the driver. This is definitely his best qualifying since the start of the season and we are more than happy with his results, although I wouldn’t want to make a comparison with Monza. But today’s pole position was a surprise, and this is a good reward for the work of the entire team.

Q: You said you didn’t expect to win pole in Singapore. Does this mean you still haven’t fully explored your car’s capabilities?
Frederic Vasseur: No, that’s not the point. With the exception of Red Bull, if you’re in a tight group behind them you can end up in any position from one weekend, session to session – from second to tenth.

Understanding the capabilities of the machine is not so difficult, but tuning it correctly is much more difficult. The results are so compact that one or two tenths is enough to dramatically change your position in the general classification. But the situation is what it is, and everyone is on equal footing. That’s why it’s really satisfying when you manage to rise to the top rank.

Question: With the points not being awarded until tomorrow and Red Bull having problems today, you are probably already rubbing your hands. As you know, Mercedes drivers perform better on Sundays than on Saturdays. How are you going to keep them under control? Are they likely to become your main rivals?
Frederic Vasseur: Yes, but I think you said the same thing to me on Saturday night in Monza, but we managed to stop Russell there. The main thing now is to concentrate on your work, think less about others and understand which tactics will be optimal tomorrow. This is exactly the approach we took in Italy, and everything went well there.