Ferrari needs to get its act together in qualifying, Vasseur says

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says the Scuderia has the potential for better results if it can evolve its pace through qualifying more effectively.

Charles Leclerc led a large spell of the Spanish Grand Prix before making a late pit stop, showing strong race pace despite being hampered by starting outside the top three positions. Ferrari has failed to score a podium since the Belgian Grand Prix in July, and Vasseur said the main weakness that needs addressing is the late stages of qualifying sessions.

“If you stop the qualifying after run one of Q3, the picture is different," he said. "So that the outcome of the last two [races] – if I put Monza aside, because Monza is completely different – but if you take Zandvoort and [Madrid], the profile of the event, it will be the same for us. We had a decent pace in qualifying, but we didn’t put everything together in the last attempt.

“Race pace is OK. So that means if I have to put the focus of the team on something, it will be the evolution of the pace of qualifying. More than the pace of qualifying, but the evolution and the steps that you can do during the runs. We were there on run one of Q3, the potential is there, we just have to adapt.”

A year ago, Ferrari’s focus was also on its current car as it did not see an opportunity to fight for championships in 2025. However, Vasseur says the stability in the regulations means the growing gap to Mercedes does not lead to a similar approach this year.

“We are not in the situation of 12 months ago," he said. "Today, what we will develop, we will be able to carry it over onto next year's project. We will continue to work on different things, different aspects [of the car], whether that’s aero… Some of the things that we do now, I think we will be able to carry on with it.”

Leclerc also suggested Ferrari will need to find improvements relating to its qualifying pace for next year’s car, and highlighted the power unit performance as one area that costs the team over one lap.

“I just think that generally our car is just a little bit weaker in qualifying than it is in the race, with lower fuel when you've got to really attack the kerbs,” Leclerc said.

“Particularly [in Madrid] McLaren was very, very strong and we were a bit on the wrong side of things on that, so we paid the price probably because of this, but as a whole I always feel like we are a bit on the back foot in qualifying.

“I think our car is a strong race car, but again, we just need to try and understand how to unlock more performance in qualifying. We know that deployment is even more of a struggle, I feel, on a Saturday than on a Sunday. For that, we don't have any quick fixes, but whatever we can do to try and gain a bit more performance on the Saturday will be very helpful for our race result.”