Vasseur promises engine improvements as Ferrari chases Mercedes

Team principal Fred Vasseur says Ferrari will deliver power unit improvements as it looks to close the gap to Mercedes and increase the pressure in Formula 1's championship fight.

Ferrari has two additional development and upgrade opportunities (ADUO) this season based on initial FIA analysis, and utilized one to bring an update at the Austrian Grand Prix. Vasseur highlighted the power unit as an area that the team knows it needs to improve if it wants to keep up recent momentum that has helped it outscore Mercedes over the past five rounds.

“The first part of the season was in two stages,” Vasseur said. “The first one is until Spain, when Mercedes was flying – they scored something like 100 points more than us in four or five events.

“And after Spain, when we came back, we scored more points than Mercedes in these five races. Where we have to improve is that, if I draw a conclusion based on [Hungary], I would say execution. But execution so far was probably good for us from the beginning of the season.

“We know that we have to improve on the engine side, and we will do it, even if the inertia on the engine is much higher than on the chassis. The most important will be to be able to keep the pace into the development. McLaren did a huge step forward, but they don't have exactly the same philosophy, because they are bringing a big package. I think the last one was in Miami. For sure, each time they bring something, they are making a huge step.

"But we have a different approach, trying to bring parts every race. And we have to keep this momentum, because there are still a lot of races to go, and we have room for improvement on the chassis everywhere, and we have to keep this pace.”

Despite preventing Mercedes from pulling further clear after its strong start to the year, Ferrari has only outscored Toto Wolff’s team by seven points since the Monaco Grand Prix, and took one point out of its lead in Budapest last time out.

“I would have preferred to do 1-2, for sure," Vasseur said. "And I think it's better for everybody to go on vacation with a good result. But on the other hand, for the championship, we are scoring more than Mercedes.

“We have the feeling that we did far from the best of what we can do, and in this situation we are not losing points. That's the positive that I will keep for my vacation.”