Vasseur: It’s extremely important to have a good first round

Frederic Vasseur, head of the Ferrari team, is not surprised by the results of qualifying in Suzuka, and he believes that by a successful coincidence not only Carlos Sainz, who starts from fourth place, but also Charles Leclerc, who the race will start in eighth, can go forward.

Q: Most of the time you laugh, but are there many reasons for joy today? If Carlos showed a decent result in qualifying, then Charles’ performance was probably disappointing…
Frederic Vasseur: I agree, for Charles the situation is so-so, while for Carlos things went a little better. If we talk about Leclerc, his problems started in the first qualifying session, when we belatedly put a second set of new tires on his car.

However, now we have to focus on preparing for tomorrow, because we have a good race speed, and in the race it is extremely important to have a good first lap, because it is quite difficult to overtake on this track, especially since there is only one DRS zone.

It is clear that it will be more difficult to progress in Suzuka than in the previous stage in Australia, but you cannot predict that in advance and everything will depend on the first lap. For these cars it is important to drive on an open track, but even though overtaking is not easy here, a lot depends on a steady pace over long series of laps. And if we are in good positions tomorrow and manage to keep the situation under control, we can count on a decent result.

Question: From what we heard on the radio, Charles was dissatisfied with his result. At the same time, his partner is now in excellent form, as Carlos won the previous race and today he was also ahead of Leclerc. Do you need to cheer Charles up somehow? Is he worried about this situation?
Frederic Vasseur: Not at all. In the previous stage, Charles took 2nd place, ahead of 18 riders from other teams. And if he lost about a tenth to Carlos today, then he knows very well where he lost this time. From my point of view something went wrong with him on the first lap of the first session. But the season is long and now this situation does not worry me at all.

Question: Were you surprised by the speed that the McLaren drivers, but also Fernando Alonso, showed in qualifying?
Frederic Vasseur: No. Remember, a few months ago, last fall, the McLaren drivers performed well in Suzuka, so it is not surprising that they are now capable of high speeds. This was expected. And Alonso is also quite capable of showing such results, so there is nothing to be surprised about.