Frederic Vasseur and Co’s Upgrades Useless Unless They Learn From Michael Schumacher’s Failures, According to F1 Pundit

What an unfortunate day for the Tifosi as the Scuderia underperformed at one of their two home races in Imola. Midway through the race, it looked like Charles Leclerc would be making it to P2, but then it all came crashing down. It’s Deja Vu from 2022 once again, as the Ferrari strategy is being questioned. Now, an F1 pundit has termed Frederic Vasseur and Co’s upgrades useless as they fail to learn from Michael Schumacher’s failures. 

Ferrari brought a huge upgrade package expected to be worth three-tenths of the performance of the Emilia Romagna GP. And it was seen during qualifying that McLaren, Ferrari, and Max Verstappen were very closely matched. However, it all came undone as Ferrari messed up the strategy. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were running P3 and P5, respectively, behind Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Both had the opportunity to undercut and pass the McLarens, but Ferrari decided otherwise, overcut the McLarens, and lost even more time to the McLarens.

After Michael Schumacher moved to Ferrari in the late 1990s, he had the task of rebuilding the team with Jean Todt and Ross Brawn. It wasn’t until the 2000s that Ferrari had a dominant car. But before those years, when the Scuderia were not dominant, Ferrari needed to get the strategy spot on to have any chances of winning the race and championship in the late 90s. Jean Todt instructed his team to do the same back in the day.

Ferrari, however, at the Imola GP doesn’t seem to have optimized their strategy, as F1 Pundit Leo Turrini gives them Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher’s example. Leo Turrini wrote in his blog, “But what Ferrari has to do is not stop working to grow. It’s not a made-up phrase, even if it seems like it. When with Schumi it was not possible to win the title (1996/97/98/99), Jean Todt came to eat at my house and repeated: We have to be the best in strategies, in pit stops, with tires, so when we have the right car we will not miss anything. And we are always there.”

Nonetheless, Charles Leclerc ended the race on the podium and was content with the pace of the car. Ferrari will optimize their upgrades in the coming races, and the pace will only get better with that. Let’s see what the Monegasque had to say as he finished P3.

Charles Leclerc is hopeful of Ferrari’s pace for the remaining season

Charles Leclerc, after the qualifying lap yesterday, was disappointed, as he expressed how he didn’t expect the McLarens and Max Verstappen to find so much pace. But coming to race pace, all of the Top 5 pretty much had the same lap times at the start of the stint on Hard tires. Just goes on to show how close the field is. The Monegasque is hopeful for future races, as the race pace looked strong.

When asked if he’s happy with the podium at Imola, Charles Leclerc replied, “At Least it’s a podium. I’m only very happy when it’s a win and today we didn’t quite make it. We were very fast at the beginning of the stint on the hard and then pushed to put some pressure on Lando, but later on they were very quick. All in all, the race pace today was very strong. We lacked yesterday in qualifying. After looking, we missed on the first straight, on the rest of the lap we were quick. It’s looking good for the rest of the season.”

What do you think? Will Ferrari join the fight for wins just like McLaren has with their upgrade package?