Development opportunities, not compression ratio changes will help Ferrari close the gap - Vasseur

Fred Vasseur believes Ferrari will have a bigger chance to close the gap to Mercedes through the FIA concessions relating to power unit development rather than a change in compression ratio testing.

The FIA will introduce a new check of compression ratios when the power unit is running at operating temperature from 1 June, with rival manufacturers having been trying to target what they believe to be one of the catalysts for Mercedes’ advantage. Vasseur is less sure the change will have a major impact, but says the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) could be a significant moment.

“I'm not convinced that the new compression ratio rule will be a game changer, or a huge game changer,” Vasseur said. “It’s more that you will have the ADUO at one stage, and the introduction of the ADUO will be an opportunity for us to close the gap. but it's not just about pure ICE performance, I think you have a lot in the energy management, a lot in the chassis, and it would be a mistake from our side to be just focused on one parameter.”

ADUO opens up after the sixth, 12th and 18th races of the season, that would have originally meant Miami but is now set to be pushed back to Monaco due to the cancellation of two Middle Eastern races. That also impacts teams’ upgrade plans, with Vasseur admitting Bahrain would have been the scene of a number of major new packages.

“Nobody can know today, what would have been the situation in Bahrain and Jeddah,” he said. “We are all developing a lot, I think that you don't see new parts in Melbourne, Shanghai or Japan for cost cap reasons, but I think everybody was supposed to bring a big upgrade in Bahrain, that means that this will be postponed to Miami.

“I can't anticipate, [what the impact] could have been the package of Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren or us, but let's be focused on ourselves, let's push until Miami. We have more time also to develop and to bring more performance in Miami, and I think it's true for us, but it will be true for our competitors.”

Vasseur also doesn’t see race starts changing further in the coming rounds, following George Russell’s suggestions that Ferrari was blocking a revision of the regulations to help teams gain more battery power when the lights go out. The Ferrari boss says the issue was flagged during car development but that the FIA told him that it was a challenge the teams must adapt to.

“I think that we already massively changed the rule of the start with the five second [pre-start warning],” he said. “One year ago I went to the FIA, I raised the hand on the starting procedure to say ‘Guys, it will be difficult’. The reply was clear that we have to design the car fitting with the regulation and not to change the regulation fitting with the car.

“We designed the car fitting with the regulation, the change of the five seconds - the blue light [pre-start] story - didn't help us at all, but I think at one stage enough is enough.”