Vasseur: I understand Leclerc’s dissatisfaction very well

The Ferrari team in Brazil suffered another setback: Charles Leclerc, who recorded the second fastest time in qualifying, retired before the start of the São Paulo Grand Prix due to technical problems and Carlos Sainz only finished sixth.

After the race, Frederic Vasseur, team leader, commented on the weekend’s disappointing results.

Frederic Vasseur: “We are very upset because we could have earned a lot of points that were important for the championship, but Charles dropped out before the start due to a reliability problem: he ended up off the track on his way to the starting field.

We had to start from the front row and, moreover, we consciously sacrificed our chances in the sprint the day before in the interests of the Grand Prix, by saving a set of tires for Sunday. I understand Leclerc’s dissatisfaction very well, because he is a real racer and is always focused on a good result.

We had excellent chances, but we missed them, but what happened happened, and now we have to analyze everything in detail and find out what exactly happened to Charles’ car. We haven’t figured it out yet, but the problem is systemic in nature, it led to the wheels locking, and this is not related to the driver’s fault.

If we talk about Carlos Sainz, he lost 50 seconds to the winner, Max Verstappen, and this is a huge gap. But he had his own problems: at the start there were clutch problems and Carlos lost several positions.

After that it was not so easy to earn this back. We couldn’t drive Red Bull’s pace, which explains this situation, but we still performed better than Mercedes. During the race, especially in the first part of the distance, Sainz worked very well with the tires and was able to stay ahead of both Mercedes drivers, meaning that at the end of the weekend we gained a few points over our rivals.

It was possible to regain much more, but nevertheless the battle for second place in the Constructors’ Championship continues.”