Frederic Vasseur: Such results are not dramatic at all

In Mexico City, Ferrari drivers started from the front row, but at the end of the Grand Prix only Charles Leclerc reached the podium and finished third, and his teammate Carlos Sainz took fourth place.

Such results cause mixed emotions, but according to Frederic Vasseur, the head of the Italian team, they are not bad either.

Frederic Vasseur: “This is still a good result. We started the race from pole position, but right at the start the situation changed for the worse. We tried to change something through tactics, but we were unlucky, we had to do a lap behind the safety car and towards the end of the distance we had problems.

In general, such results are not dramatic at all, although there is of course some reason for frustration. If you start from the front row, 3rd and 4th place at the finish is not what you are aiming for. But if you remember how the race went, I think this is almost the maximum possible given the kind of car we have.

We understood that it would not be easy for us at the start, because the acceleration towards Turn 1 is quite long and the effect of the slipstream can be powerful. So of course the start cannot be called ideal.

We showed good pace in the first segment, but at the restart we, like many others, had problems with the hard tires. As a result, Charles lost position compared to Lewis Hamilton, who was driving on Medium tires. But if we decided to fit such tires during the race break, in our case they might not last until the end of the distance.

We must continue to work on reducing the gap between qualifying speed and race pace, as we had many more problems, especially on the hard tyres, than our rivals, who managed to work better on the tyres.”