Fred Vasseur claims Ferrari made too many ‘mistakes’ after proving second best against McLaren at the Chinese GP 

The 55-year-old reckoned that the team didn’t ‘exploit’ the potential that was present in the car over the weekend.

In the end, we started behind Norris and Perez, and so we finished the race, There were too many mistakes from everyone and we didn’t extract the maximum potential from the car. It’s not about updates but about exploiting the potential that is in the car, and we didn’t do that this weekend.  Fred Vasseur said, as reported by formu1auno.com.

Apart from this, Vasseur also commented on the issues faced at the Shanghai circuit due to the gap of five years. The Frenchman pointed out that the Sprint weekend caused a problem with testing the car for the best setup.

Additionally, the re-painted track caused issues for multiple drivers including Ferrari. Regardless, Vasseur accepted that the team made mistakes in the preparation phase while rival teams performed much better.

No one has tested on this track, and the situation was the same for us. It’s true that perhaps the asphalt issue hasn’t helped us, but it’s not an excuse. We made some mistakes in the preparation phase and others did better. It’s up to us to work to do better next time. Fred Vasseur noted.

Fred Vasseur admits that Qualifying was the weak spot for Ferrari at the Chinese GP

Qualifying is one of the strengths of the Scuderia over a race weekend. However, the Maranelllo-based outfit faced issues during the quali session at the Chinese GP. Neither of the Ferrari drivers could manage a front-row start or a podium finish, courtesy of the weak qualifying position. Hence, Vasseur acknowledged that the one-lap pace was something that didn’t go in favor of the Italian constructor.

If there is something that didn’t go well, it was qualifying. Fred Vassuer claimed.

Additionally, the 55-year-old explained that starting from relatively behind the grid caused issues regarding tire wear for the drivers. Hence, the poor qualifying inadvertently affected the entire race for Leclerc and Carlos. However, speaking about the positives, Vasseur mentioned that the medium stint was great for the team and had everything under control then.

Starting from behind affects the race because even if you are faster, if you don’t overtake immediately, you fall behind and wear the tyres more. With the medium tyres, everything was under control, while with the Hard tyres, we lost ground. Fred Vasseur reckoned.

Hence, Ferrari will revisit the data from the Chinese weekend and find out the issues that made them lose out to McLaren. Maranello will start working over the chassis in the coming week to showcase a much better performance in the upcoming Miami GP. The team has proved that they can challenge the dominant Red Bulls at the forefront.