Ferrari Boss Frederic Vasseur Breaks the “Wonderland” Assumption of Ferrari’s Potential With Aim for F1 Recovery

Ferrari finished in second place in the constructor’s championship last year. After that rather dismal performance in 2022, rumors started to circulate that Ferrari would challenge the reigning champion Red Bull in 2023. Yet, from the first race, things haven’t gone their way. And after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the team discovered that it had a more serious pace gap than ever. Nevertheless, the Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur is optimistic about the team’s revival despite shattering the preconceived notion of Scuderia’s capabilities.

Charles Leclerc delayed the Ferrari woes till the race after a superb qualifying run on Saturday. After receiving a 10-place grid penalty for acquiring the third Control Electronic unit, the Monegasque started his race from P-12. The squad was optimistic about their chances at the Jeddah circuit thanks to Carlos Sainz, who began either side of the Mercedes lads.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go in the favor of Ferrari boys as Carlos Sainz finished sixth, about 36 seconds behind race winner Sergio Perez, and only one position ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, who moved up from P12 to P7. Things were already bad for the Prancing Horse at the Sakhir, where the team blamed the severe degradation on the harsh Bahrain circuit, and following that at the second race of the season, the team discovered that they are unable to move quickly on the hard tires.

Citing that, as per motorsports total TP Frederic Vasseur said, “There is no wonderland behind it. See where there is potential and where not. The basic package is okay, but we don’t get enough out of the car, which is also due to the tyres.”

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Ferrari may have planned to compete with the speed of Aston Martin and Red Bull yesterday, but Mercedes’s speed surprised everyone. The team of Frederic Vasseur may find this information worrying.

Frederic Vasseur and Co. are concerned by Mercedes’ unexpected speed

After the practice session, it was unclear whether Mercedes could compete with Ferrari and Aston Martin or not. However, the silver Arrows really caught everyone watching Formula One off guard with their unexpected pace, which ultimately resulted in both Mercedes drivers defeating the Ferrari team.

The stunning pace of the German Manufacturers took aback the entire Prancing Horse team and following the race, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz acknowledged that the Scuderia pace had disappointed them and had fallen short of expectations. While conversing with Sky Sports F1, the Spaniard said, “Yes, I think after Friday practice, even before coming into the weekend we thought we had them.“

He added, “And we thought we were quick, even after quali you know, with Charles’ lap that I think he did a brilliant lap and I struggled, we thought in race pace we were going to be okay. And today, we were not okay.”

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If things continue as they are, Red Bull will move far beyond Ferrari’s reach, which is a very worrying situation for them. Having said that, do you think things will change for the Prancing horse soon?