“Leclerc Had the Potential”: Frederic Vasseur Rubs Salt in Spanish Wounds as He Openly Sides With Charles Snubbing Carlos Sainz After Scathing Accusations

It was hotly contested whether Frederic Vasseur would be able to put an end to Ferrari’s 16-year drought after succeeding Mattia Binotto as a team principal in January. Even though Tifosi’s desire still exists the same, it appears that his strategies and choices may soon spark a new F1 rivalry, apart from technical difficulties. As Frederic Vasseur has recently come to the spotlight following the controversial Hungarian Grand Prix. With his statements, he has once more sided with Charles Leclerc, adding salt to Spanish open wounds.

Ferrari has long been the subject of strong criticism for its strategic choices, and in the past three races, the team has come under fire for a number of other problems. The team has reportedly been accused of favoritism toward Leclerc, indeed they have provided numerous justifications for this. And again, when Carlos Sainz could have made it yet another impactful race, Ferrari ruined the Hungarian Grand Prix by standing up for Leclerc.

Sainz quickly realized his game wouldn’t last more than 15 laps after starting the race on soft tires, qualifying 11th, 5 places behind Leclerc. And Ferrari soon made it apparent that they won’t let Sainz pass Leclerc and engage him in a battle with Mercedes maestro Lewis Hamilton. Additionally, the Monegasque once more received preference over the Spaniard while entering the pits. Later in the second stint, Sainz was placed behind Leclerc, allowing the Monegasque to undercut after his delayed pit.

Since the last three races, a similar procedure has been taking place, and when the water level rose above the head, the Spanish media has been highly critical of Frederic Vasseur and company for their treatment of Sainz. However, Frederic Vasseur asserts that there is no reason for an argument.

As per Formulapassion, Vasseur explained, “It was the best way to protect the team’s result. Considering Carlos had to start on the softs and looking at tyre wear, Leclerc had the potential to finish 20 seconds ahead at the end of the race. It means that the decision was right. Before the call though, no one can predict if there will be a gun problem or a penalty. It’s always easy to watch the race after the chequered flag.”

Later, while explaining the reason behind taking that call in a much more elaborated manner, Vasseur added, “The weekend was strongly conditioned by the sixth and eleventh places in qualifying. Starting eleventh we had to take risks at the start, starting with the softs. It was a good choice, but we also knew that after that we would have to mount two sets of hards and it was difficult. As for Charles, the race was better. The pace was there, but the result was conditioned by the penalty and the problem with the gun at the tire change, losing eight seconds plus those due to traffic.”

READ MORE: “That’s Not Luck”: After Taking the Blame for Charles Leclerc’s Misery, Ferrari Boss Shifts the Goalpost Yet Again’

Even though Vasseur might be defending every move of his team now, it was he only who predicted that the Budapest weekend might go in Scuderia’s favor. However, the end results remained very disappointing and now Frederic Vasseur reacts to the Frustrating Hungarian GP weekend.

What did Frederic Vasseur say about Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s underwhelming Hungarian GP Adventure?

Ferrari had its sights set on the Hungaroring track after a lackluster performance at Silverstone. What reason? It was due to the slow turns on the narrow, winding circuits, which perfectly matched the characteristics of the SF23. However, the entire Ferrari team may be having serious considerations after getting two depressing results, P7 and P8. While the Scuderia made far too many errors at the Budapest race, Vasseur opened up about the terrible week while speaking to Sky Sports.

He said, “I think on our side it’s much more the fact that we made too many mistakes from the beginning to the end. I spent the last 35 years of my life on the pit wall and every single Monday of my career we go through a list of mistakes. The job of the team principal is to do the list with the team members and to fix it.”

WATCH THIS STORY: Is Carlos Sainz Looking to Move away from Ferrari?

Do you believe Vasseur can drastically remedy all the poor decisions made during the Hungarian Grand Prix and can bring a big turnaround at the Belgian GP?