Vasser is not sure that Ferrari has fully understood the tires

Frederic Vasseur is cautious about the progress Ferrari has made in working with rubber, saying last year’s increased relegation had a greater impact on the team’s results than other problems. While the Scuderia cars were often the fastest in qualifying, the pace dropped quite quickly during the race, precisely because the tires lost their efficiency.

But the specialists of the Italian team, responsible for the characteristics of the chassis and aerodynamics, did a lot of work at the end of last season, as well as in preparation for the current season, which achieved impressive results. It seems that the SF-24 is free from the shortcomings of its predecessor – at least this is evident from the Scuderia’s podium finishes in all four races and Carlos Sainz’s crushing victory in Australia.

However, Vasseur prefers to refrain from overly optimistic predictions: “I think we have worked much better with the tires since the start of the season. This is also reflected in the degree of relegation, because in my opinion we managed to set the best time in the very last round during the races in Jeddah and Melbourne.

I think we were only a tenth short of that in Suzuka. We have taken a very good step forward, we have made great efforts to address our weaknesses, we are using much more effective approaches to control tire wear; In addition, our riders perform much better and the team acts correctly when developing tactics.

But of course we still have weaknesses of a different kind, there are other areas where we need to improve if we strive for better results. I think the situation is already under control, although it is not yet a fact that if everything goes well one day when it comes to working with tires, everything will go well the next time. Therefore, we cannot assume that the tire problem has been completely resolved.

Next week on the stage in China we will have to work on a circuit with different surface properties, in different weather conditions, which means we have to take on a new challenge. In Shanghai we get the chance to test all this in cooler weather. I don’t know what awaits us, because in Japan we have only conducted a third of our training under similar conditions.

I’m not sure if our form in China will be any better, but at Suzuka we managed to keep tire degradation under control on both Saturday and Sunday. However, the same can be said about our opponents.”