In yesterday’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, only one of the Ferrari drivers reached the finish – Charles Leclerc took 5th place, while Carlos Sainz retired on lap 38, flying off the rainy track and damaging his car.
Frederic Vasseur, head of the Scuderia, commented on the ambiguous results of the Brazilian weekend.
Frédéric Vasseur: “We could of course have earned more points if Carlos had reached the finish of the race and if we had chosen a better time for Charles’ pit stop. But I don’t think the difference will be that big.
We expected the weather to be different, and this predetermined our choice of tire pressure. We saw the same with McLaren, who drove very fast at the start of the segment and then lost more and more momentum, and the same was true for Alpine. In such cases, a lot depends on your choice, and this time everything did not go as we wanted. But this is not a disaster for our position in the championship, and we will be able to perform stronger in Las Vegas.
Charles had a great final restart, ahead of Lando Norris and George Russell, but then the Mercedes driver was able to fight back and Charles had to defend himself against Lando. As the stint went on the tires became more and more efficient and by the end we were probably 0.6 or 0.7 seconds faster than the McLaren.
But it is very difficult to predict how many more laps we will do before it starts to rain again. We had to make a choice, but luck was not on our side. However, the most important thing is that we understand what we are doing.
Overall, this three-race series went well. I think we earned more points than any other team, that’s what’s important for us. We had an excellent preparation for the last three races of the season. We know that the Las Vegas circuit suits us better than the Brazilian circuit and we will try to earn a lot of points there.
The exciting championship fight between the four best teams will continue until the last race in Abu Dhabi, but I would also like to congratulate Alpine, they have had a very difficult season, but they achieved a great result in Sao Paulo!”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
