The Maranello team have generally been the stronger team in the first five races of the 2024 season, being the only non-Red Bull winner of the Australian GP thanks to Carlos Sainz’s victory.
“I think it’s a matter of a tenth or a half-tenth,” Vasseur said. “In Melbourne for example, after 60 laps we finished the race eight seconds ahead. It’s more about extracting the best from what we have.”
“And honestly, we talk about development. Firstly, as a team we have to make the most of what we have, and we didn’t do the job this weekend on that. It’s not not that the situation changes massively from one point to another weekend to another.
“It may be a bit related to the track, the tarmac. I think it was very difficult to understand the tarmac. [in China]also because of the format because we did a soft relay on Friday morning then we went to the race in medium and we hadn’t done medium before, we did one lap in qualifying.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“It means that this kind of understanding of the situation, let’s say or approach to the situation, can make a difference in the end because we’re talking about a tenth, we’re not talking about half a second,” he said. he added.
Vasseur says the tight group of cars chasing Verstappen means there hasn’t been a “normal” weekend for him to have a clearer idea of which team is in the lead.
The Frenchman insisted that the smallest details will make the difference, as he believes China is an example.
“There is no normal weekend. It’s the start of the season, so we have the window that [on] the whole thing is very, very tight,” he said.
“Maybe Max is a little faster sometimes. But we have a pack with six or seven cars in a tenth. That means that for details you can go from hero to zero.”
“When you start from 9th place, the race is much more difficult because you look dirty in the first laps, even if you are faster, but deep down even if you are faster, you are struggling to overtake because if you don’t have the splits, you damage the tire during the first 10 laps and then you are dead.
“I think it’s really about putting everything together. We didn’t have a clean weekend on our end, but collectively we made too many mistakes.
“We know that in this group, if you don’t do a perfect job, you won’t be ahead.”
