<\/p>\n
After a challenging Friday, Ferrari showed signs of improvement in qualifying, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton securing second and third on the grid. However, race day proved far more difficult, with both drivers struggling in hot conditions and adopting a three-stop strategy due to tyre degradation. Hamilton finished fifth, while Leclerc crossed the line in eighth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Vasseur said the team\u2019s performance deficit compared to Mercedes and Max Verstappen was the decisive factor. \u201cThe strategy is not the issue. We didn\u2019t have the pace of Mercedes and Verstappen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He explained that Ferrari took strategic risks in an attempt to compensate, but these did not yield the desired outcome. \u201cWe tried to compensate for taking risks on the strategy, but it was not a good fit,\u201d Vasseur added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The team principal acknowledged that Ferrari could stay competitive with McLaren but found it significantly harder to match the leading pace of Mercedes. \u201cWe overpushed probably the first couple of laps to stay with them, and we destroyed a bit of everything,\u201d he said, referring to the impact on tyre performance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leclerc\u2019s race added to a recent run of difficult results, though Vasseur stressed that the driver\u2019s confidence and pace were not in doubt. He pointed out that Leclerc\u2019s front-row qualifying position demonstrated strong performance. \u201cIt\u2019s more a matter of overheating and destroying everything; it\u2019s nothing to do with pace,\u201d Vasseur said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reflecting further, Vasseur suggested that Ferrari may have focused too heavily on competing directly with Mercedes, which influenced both race execution and strategy decisions. \u201cWe were probably too focused on Mercedes and then perhaps reacted too aggressively with the strategy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He indicated that Ferrari would take lessons from Austria into the next race, emphasising the need to refocus on the team\u2019s own performance rather than direct comparisons with rivals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–F1\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38366,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-38365","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur believes the team\u2019s difficult result at the Austrian Grand Prix was primarily due to a lack of pace rather than flawed strategy, despite efforts to compensate through more aggressive tactical decisions.","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38367,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38365\/revisions\/38367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}