Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur concedes that it was “not the good choice” to place Charles Leclerc on a one-stop strategy in the United States Grand Prix.

Starting from pole position, Leclerc immediately relinquished a place to Lando Norris before being demoted down to fourth by Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

However, the Monegasque was comfortably running in fourth, approaching 4s clear of team-mate Carlos Sainz directly behind when Ferrari elected to pit the Spaniard first.

Leclerc would have to wait six laps before stopping for the only time, which dropped him into the clutches of Sainz and Sergio Perez in the closing laps on ageing tyres.

Prior to Leclerc being disqualified from the race classification, Vasseur acknowledged that Ferrari made a mistake with his strategy.

“Clearly we have mixed feelings,” Vasseur reflected. “Because on one side of the garage with Carlos, we did pretty well. Starting P4, finishing P4, we finished two or three seconds behind Norris, and I think everything went well.

“With Charles, who was 10 seconds in front of Carlos after 12 laps, we committed for one-stop, and it was not the good choice, it’s obvious.

“Probably the issue is that we didn’t have a clear picture about this before the race, we were a bit hesitating, and he was a bit hesitating into the first stint, pushing or not pushing. And we made a mistake.

“It was not very clear before the race, as you can imagine. We had the two options. In terms of numbers, it was very, very close.

“I think where we made the mistake is that we anticipated that the field will be 50-50. And it was not at all.”

Expanding on that last comment, Vasseur admitted that Ferrari was caught out when the competition avoided a one-stop strategy.

Mercedes potentially lost the chance to beat the two-stopping Verstappen with Hamilton when the side dawdled on abandoning an apparent initial attempt to only pit once.

The Brackley squad would also divert George Russell onto a two-stop, but Vasseur contends it was “easier” for the Briton as he was running a net last in the front pack.

“I think that Hamilton was not far away to do one-stop, Russell, I think he went for one stop clearly, but as he was the last of the group, it’s much easier to change if you are last and you are in the same strategy as the others. It’s better to change and take risks.”

“It’s not just a matter of tenths of seconds on the tyres, it’s a matter of what the others are doing also.

“Because what was even more difficult with Charles was that everybody committed for the two stops.

“It means that you have much more traffic around you, because it’s not that everybody’s doing the same race as you, and you have a clean race, as you are not in the sequence, the guys are overtaking you one or two times.

“And each time that someone is overtaking you, you are losing two seconds. It means that when you have these two times, four guys, you are losing eight times 1.5 seconds, it’s 12 seconds for the traffic, and the picture of what users are doing. But it’s a mistake.”

Sainz revealed that trying to retain pace with Hamilton and Verstappen in the early exchanges led to him heavily wearing his starting tyres, prompting his early first stop.

Vasseur has concurred with Sainz’s comments, citing that the decision to stop twice was more clearcut with the Spanish driver than it was with Leclerc ahead.

“I think the main issue was that we were a bit in-between,” he added. “We moved quickly on the two stops with Carlos, because in the fight with Max, I think he had a bit of deg, and we decided to commit quite early on the two stops. Charles, it was less obvious.”

Meanwhile, Vasseur also refused to speculate on the outcome if Leclerc, who had been the faster of the two Ferraris, had been on an identical strategy to Sainz.

Amid Norris encountering late trouble with his tyres, Sainz closed to within 5s of his ex-McLaren team-mate by the chequered flag.

“For sure you can redo the race and imagine that he was six or seven seconds ahead of Sainz, and Leclerc would have done this or this,” Vasseur recognised.

“But I think it’s not the right approach, we have to be focused on the mistake, to try to understand why you did the choice, because we were convinced that it was the good one, with the elements that we had at this stage.

“It means that the numbers that we had on the pitwall, and at the factory at this stage of the race, were not good ones.”

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has outlined that Oliver Bearman will combine more FP1 outings in Formula 1 next year with another season in Formula 2.

It was announced last week that Bearman will be making his F1 bow later this month when he conducts an FP1 session with the Haas team at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

He will also be behind the wheel of the VF-23 in the opening practice session in Abu Dhabi, ensuring Haas fulfils its obligation to run a rookie driver in two FP1 sessions in the year.

Ahead of those appearances, Bearman was given the opportunity to drive an F1 car for the first time in his career when he drove Ferrari’s SF21 at the side’s Fiorano test track.

The Briton, who has been a member of Ferrari’s Driver Academy since the end of 2021, is currently competing in F2, where he sits sixth in the standings with four wins.

Vasseur has confirmed that Bearman will return for a second crack at F2 in 2024, alongside more F1 practice sessions to prepare him for the potential step up.

Asked whether he could provide an insight into Bearman’s racing schedule for next year, Vasseur said: “[In] 2024 he will do F2 again.

“But you know the situation, that we already had the discussion – I think it was the last press conference – about the junior series and the general programme is that the step is quite high with the F1, because we have no testing anymore, we have more and more Sprint event with just one FP1.

“We have three tests during the winter, it means that it’s quite difficult to adapt to the F1 and the rookies not always successful. I think Oscar [Piastri] did a very good job also because he had one year of preparation last year and he was already used to the F1.

“And we have to prepare in advance and it’s why we give him two FP1s this season with us and probably much more next year and we will prepare him for the future. So far, he’s doing a very good job in the junior series, but we know that it’s [F1] a long way [away].”

Vasseur’s mention of the lack of testing time now afforded to rookie F1 drivers followed comments by Logan Sargeant, who recently defended his tough maiden campaign.

“Experience always helps, but I have people to talk to just try and understand how to approach things and why these little mistakes are happening and how to get rid of them,” Sargeant said in Qatar.

“It is a constant work-in-progress, and I don’t think anyone is perfect in that sense – it is just about building off the mistakes, and it might sound silly, but using them to your advantage to try and learn from it.

“Ideally, you’d have more testing, as that is the best way to prepare – I mean back in the day when Lewis [Hamilton] and Fernando [Alonso] joined, everyone back then got endless days of testing, and in the current car too which is very different to what we experience now. 

“Now, it is always a previous generation and that makes a difference, but even if it is the previous generation [of car used in testing], just having more days [overall] makes a difference.”

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur asserts that Andretti must demonstrate its “added value” to Formula 1 beyond being a prospective American entry to secure a place on the grid.

Ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, the FIA formally announced that it had finally approved Andretti Formula Racing’s proposal to join F1 as early as the 2025 season.

However, Michael Andretti’s eponymous team must negotiate terms with Formula One Management before it is given the green light to become the series’ latest addition.

Since the FIA opened up an Expression of Interest process back in February, forthcoming applicants have been met with stern resistance by the 10 current teams, who have all alleviated concern over the end-of-season prize pot becoming diluted with an extra name introduced to the fold.

After Williams chief James Vowles declared F1 shouldn’t welcome an 11th team until the existing sides are all “financially stable”, Vasseur believes the landscape has changed since the previous Concorde Agreement opened the door for grid expansion.

“It’s not a secret that I’m not a big fan,” Vasseur said in Qatar following the news that Andretti had been accepted by the FIA.

“That when we opened the door to an 11th team in the Concorde Agreement last time, it was for good reason, that at this stage Honda said already that they would leave F1 and Renault was on the edge. It mean that we had only Mercedes and Ferrari confirmed for the future.

“And we opened the door to an 11th team in case of they could bring something substantial to the F1 – and I think at this stage that was mainly the engine.”

“As James said before, all the teams on the grid they made a big effort… We have to keep in mind that three or four years ago we had almost half of the grid quite close to the bankruptcy and we have to avoid to be arrogant that F1… The life is a cycle and we don’t know what could happen before 2030. And I would think that we would put F1 in a tough situation for this.”

Vasseur has also downplayed that Andretti’s status as an American outfit would make its inclusion worthwhile, pointing to Haas and Logan Sargeant’s existing participation.

“Except if the new entrant is bringing massive added value to the F1,” the Ferrari team boss continued. “And I didn’t have access to the CEO of Andretti, but I think it’s the first question: what is the added value for the F1?

“We have already a 10th team who is American with Haas. We have an American driver on the grid. And the question for me is around this. What could be the value?”

Haas has already confirmed that its two drivers will sport special race suits for its second home race of the 2023 season in Austin, Texas this weekend.

The Kannapolis-based squad are also set to unveil a revised livery, something it also did for last year’s United States Grand Prix event.

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has downplayed the extent of McLaren’s 2023 Formula 1 gains after the side scored a double podium at the Japanese Grand Prix.

McLaren opened the year admitting it had missed development targets with its all-new MCL60 car and subsequently only scored 17 points across the opening eight rounds.

Since introducing a revised car in Austria, however, the Woking side has elevated into podium-scoring contention, with further upgrades in Singapore enabling both drivers to finish inside the top three at Suzuka.

But Vasseur highlights that Lando Norris’ third-place starting berth in Barcelona with the old-spec car showcased McLaren’s underlying strength on high-speed circuits.

“I’m not sure if we have exactly the same reading of the season,” Vasseur argued.

“I think that they had a big issue at the beginning and then they recovered pretty quickly because, even in Barcelona, they were on the second row.

“I think it was Max [Verstappen], Carlos [Sainz] and then Lando and Lewis [Hamilton] on the second row, they were already competitive.

“And this kind of track is probably suited more with their car than us. But for sure it’s not just a matter of pure potential, it’s a matter of driveability also.

“Each time you will do a step forward you will also help the driver to do a step forward, and this can be a kind of snowball effect. Still, a small step compared to Red Bull!”

Ferrari has recently begun to get on top of the degradation troubles that had stymied its competitiveness earlier in the season.

Despite being unable to challenge McLaren for the podium places in Japan, Ferrari outscored Mercedes for the third consecutive weekend to close the margin in the Constructors’ standings to 20 points.

Vasseur has outlined that he is pleased with the improvements Ferrari has made regarding tyre management in 2023.

“I think it’s a step forward compared to the beginning of the season,” he assessed.

“But on the other hand, we were probably a bit too conservative, and I think it was true for everybody on the grid that we were more scared than the reality. It was under control in the race. And we think we did a good step forward on this one.

“It’s sure if you have a look on the first couple of races of the season, the degradation or the tyre management, were not always our biggest skill, let’s say. 

“And coming to Suzuka with this track temp we were a bit at risk. But at the end of the day, I think we did a good job on this side.

“The race was under control, the strategy was well managed. We did well. A clear step forward compared to the first part of the season.”

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has urged for caution despite the side’s victory in Singapore, citing it “won’t find a bullet for four, five tenths” to regularly challenge Red Bull.

After beginning the latest regulation cycle with the best package on the grid, Ferrari has progressively regressed to third in the Constructors’ Championship this term.

The Italian outfit has endured trouble getting on top of a problematic SF-23 car, throughout the season, particularly at high-downforce venues on the calendar.

Having excelled at Monza, both Ferrari drivers were anticipating a more troublesome weekend at the technically challenging Marina Bay Circuit in Singapore.

However, amid Red Bull’s unexpected slump, Carlos Sainz surged to a second consecutive pole position and controlled the race to claim Ferrari’s first victory since July last year.

Asked to explain Ferrari’s contrast in form, Vasseur said: “For sure it’s difficult to compare with Zandvoort to imagine that we would be in such good shape in Singapore, but I think it’s also linked to the fact we had a good weekend in Monza.

“From Lap 1 FP1 we build up the confidence in Monza and Singapore is also the consequence of this one. The fact that we also have Carlos so quick at the beginning of the weekend was also very helpful for us, and he did a very good job from the first lap to the last one.”

Sainz acknowledged that Ferrari’s extensive testing throughout practice at the Dutch Grand Prix had enabled it to make a breakthrough with its capricious 2023 car.

But Vasseur has downplayed the significance of Ferrari’s Singapore triumph, admitting the Maranello camp still requires a big step to regularly compete for victories – one that won’t materialise overnight.

“I think we have to stay calm,” the Frenchman declared. “When we had a tough [run it was important] to not draw conclusions that racing is going badly and that we have to change, and it’s not that after two weekends we are World Champion.

“We have to stay calm, we need to keep the same approach, try to develop step by step, but there is nothing magic in this business and you won’t find a bullet for four, five tenths, in that if you want to find a step you have to do a lot of small steps.

“And I think it’s what I’ve appreciated into the direction of the team after the tough weekend, and also into the confidence, because I think it was probably in Zandvoort we unlocked something on the understanding of the set-up and we build up the pace of Monza, part of this in Zandvoort, and probably a large part of the pace this weekend.”

However, the ex-Alfa Romeo team boss is optimistic that Ferrari will not get wrong-footed in the same manner Mercedes did last year by a strong end to the campaign.

The German marque elected to retain its ‘zeropod’ concept after claiming victory at the penultimate round of 2022 but decided to abolish the solution one round into this year.

Ferrari Technical Director Enrico Cardile has already confirmed the team is working on a “brand new” car philosophy for next season.

“I prefer to do good results than bad results,” Vasseur added. “For sure, this will help for the future, it’s a better understanding of the car, a better understanding of the set-up of the car, but mainly a step forward in terms of confidence for everybody and this is the best way to prepare for the future.”

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur reveals it was entirely Carlos Sainz’s idea to implement the slowing tactics that secured him victory in the Singapore Grand Prix.

Ferrari took advantage of Red Bull’s unexpected slump at the Marina Bay Circuit to become the first side other than the reigning champions to win a race in 2023.

After being beaten by the Red Bulls from pole position in Monza, Sainz controlled matters expertly from the front in Singapore to claim Ferrari’s first win since last July,

Following Charles Leclerc’s admission that he opted for the Soft tyre at the start to try and get ahead of George Russell to protect his team-mate’s lead, Vasseur says the pre-race discussions at Ferrari centred around creating a comfortable buffer for Sainz.

“The plan was to help Carlos because we knew track position was crucial in Singapore and the best way to protect Carlos was also to have Charles behind him,” he explained.

“It was also why we asked at one stage Charles to slow down a little bit to protect from an undercut and that was the plan from Lap 1.”

However, Ferrari’s plan unravelled on Lap 20 when the Safety Car intervened, resulting in Leclerc losing two places when he was held slightly in his pit box for oncoming traffic.

While Sainz appeared to have a handle on proceedings, a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 44 granted the opportunity for Mercedes to make a late assault on the victory by pitting its drivers for a new set of Medium tyres.

Despite Russell and Lewis Hamilton catching up to the back of Lando Norris, the Mercedes drivers couldn’t find a way past the McLaren.

Sainz revealed after the race that he had purposely backed up to give Norris DRS to defend, with Vasseur disclosing that the Spaniard formulated the plan himself.

“It was the idea of Carlos,” he admitted. “I don’t want to say it’s obvious, but he knew he was more at risk with Mercedes than with Norris.

“With Norris we had the same tyres, and almost the same pace from the Lap 1. We were not really at risk with Norris except if we lost the tyres, so it was a clever move from Carlos to keep Norris into the DRS.”

Having secured his first pole and podium of the year in Italy, Sainz expressed ahead of last weekend that he had always been “at one” with Ferrari’s troublesome SF-23 car.

Vasseur believes that Sainz has made considerable progress across the last two race weekends, underlining that he has been immediately on the pace from the outset.

“The last two weekends I think he did a very good step forward, also into the preparation of the weekend,” Vasseur acknowledged.

“The biggest difference is that he is ready from lap one of FP1. Zandvoort was also the same – although he didn’t do FP1 [at the Dutch GP] we had the rookie FP1, but from lap one FP2 he was there and it’s the best way to prepare the quali.

“If you don’t have so many sets of tyres, it means that if you are starting the weekend a step backwards, then you have to overshoot the limit. And also, for the team, in terms of preparation, it’s the best approach you can have.”

Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur believes “it would be strange” to retrospectively award Felipe Massa the 2008 Formula 1 title.

Vasseur’s comments come as the former Ferrari driver escalated his legal challenge over the outcome of the 2008 championship last week.

Massa’s lawyers claim he was “the victim of a conspiracy committed by individuals at the highest level of F1 together with the FIA and Formula One Management”.

They also report that the former driver lost out on tens of millions of euros in lost earnings and bonuses as a result of Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashing out of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Massa lost out on vital points in his championship challenge as a result of Piquet’s crash. The 2008 championship saw Massa defeated by a single point by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

“As you can imagine I don’t want to make any comment on this matter, I have a good relationship with all the stakeholders!” Vasseur commented.

“It’s quite tricky, for sure the circumstances were completely exceptional… but more generally and not about Felipe I think we are trying to push the FIA to know the result of the event at the chequered flag, and perhaps this would be strange.

“I’m not a big fan to change the result of the race 15 minutes after the chequered flag [let alone 15 years]!”

Details about ‘Crashgate’ emerged publicly the following year with Renault handed a two-year suspended ban from F1, while team boss Flavio Briatore and technical chief Pat Symonds were also disciplined for their roles in the incident.

At the time, Massa led calls for the FIA to cancel the result of the Singapore Grand Prix, however the FIA’s International Sporting Code dictated that classification from each season is set in stone once the FIA Awards ceremony is completed.

The 11-time winner began pursuing legal action earlier this year when former F1 owner Bernie Ecclestone revealed that he and former FIA president Max Mosely knew Piquet’s crash was deliberate but chose not to act.

Closing the deficit to Red Bull has been made a more difficult task due to the introduction of Formula 1’s cost cap, believes Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur.

F1 has operated under a budget cap since 2021, with the figure this year set at $135 million for each team.

Red Bull has dominated the opening half of the 2023 campaign, winning all 12 grands prix staged so far.

The Milton Keynes-based squad boasts a mammoth lead in both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championship, having been largely unchallenged.

But teams such as Ferrari are no longer to throw as many resources as it can at development, meaning the deficit that exists at the start of the year has become much harder to close.

“Red Bull is also bringing upgrades and upgrades and upgrades,” Vasseur said. 

“And I think that everybody is improving but the reality of the regulations and the cost gap is that we are improving much less than in the past. 

“It means that when there is a gap, and a real gap, it’s quite difficult to catch up. 

“One weekend to the others over the last four or five weekends it was a one time [Ferrari] ahead in quali, one time McLaren, one time Mercedes.

“But we are always behind Red Bull and at least in the race they have still a huge gap.”

Ferrari currently sits fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, having endured a difficult opening 12 rounds.

The team was hopeful of fighting for the title this year after returning to the top step in 2022 – but has so far been forced to celebrate just a handful of podiums.

Vasseur insists that Ferrari is focused on itself, not its rivals, as it aims to make strides towards the front of the field.

“To catch up, it’s not that you are thinking about the Red Bull and to say well ‘what [do] we have to do?’ 

“You have to work on yourself. It means that we are developing, we are developing in every single direction, we are trying to improve aero, suspension and whatever we can do. 

“We are pushing like hell to do a better job but if you have a look, and this is crucial, with the bouncing and so, it’s not when you are bringing upgrades that you are doing a huge step forward.”

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur doesn’t believe that Max Verstappen’s current dominance is “damaging” for Formula 1.

After its title bid collapsed dramatically last season, Ferrari was aiming to go one better this season to take its first title since 2008.

However, the Scuderia has struggled for consistency with a capricious car and has only scooped three podiums to languish fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

But following two tough weekends, Ferrari returned to the podium in Belgium with Charles Leclerc to head into the summer break on a much more positive note.

Vasseur, though, has stressed the importance of not being reactionary to the result, citing how the compactness of the field has been responsible for Ferrari suffering fluctuations in performance throughout the first half of the year.

“I will stay very calm because we had the same meeting one week ago and we were at the end of the world because McLaren was flying and we were stupid and from one week to the other McLaren is at the back today and we are at the front,” he said.

“It means that we have to stay calm to take it easy race after race that we know that the pack is so tight that for one or two things, you can move from P2 to P11.

“It’s not the end of the season, we have a lot to do. But for sure today it’s good to finish the first part of the season on the positive tone, at least we will have two weeks off with a positive race in mind.”

Verstappen has now won eight races in succession, leaving him only one shy of Sebastian Vettel’s all-time F1 record.

By contrast, team-mate Sergio Perez has struggled since taking pole position in Miami at the beginning of May, having then encountered a torrid run of five consecutive rounds without a Q3 appearance.

Consequently, Perez has had to embark on several recovery drives through the field, leaving the Mexican a huge 125-points adrift of Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings.

Asked whether it was Verstappen or the Red Bull RB19 mainly making the difference to the Austrian outfit’s current unbeaten run in 2023, Vasseur said: “No, it’s quite impossible to split between driver and team or cars.

“The driver is also developing the car, is also setting up the car, that is part of the performance of the car.

“Now for sure when you see the result that race after race that there is a big difference between the two team-mates but this is not my issue, it is the issue of Red Bull.”

However, Vasseur has dismissed the notion that Verstappen’s winning streak is hurting F1’s global appeal.

Instead, the Ferrari chief insists that the Italian marque must strive to improve to provide the Dutchman and Red Bull with tougher competition in the future.

“It’s that we have to do collectively a better job,” he declared. “It’s not that Max is damaging something.

“Max is doing a fantastic job, Red Bull is doing a fantastic job and it’s just that we have to do a better job. We can’t complain about Max or Red Bull.”

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has revealed that it was holding out for a red flag before electing to retire Carlos Sainz from Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Sainz, who started fourth, was aiming to get ahead of Lewis Hamilton at Turn 1 on the opening lap when Oscar Piastri’s McLaren positioned his car to the inside of the Ferrari.

Piastri ended up clipping the inside wall at the La Source hairpin, culminating in race-ending contact for the Australian and severe damage to the bodywork of Sainz’s car.

While Sainz was able to continue beyond the first lap, the Spaniard struggled for pace and was rapidly shuffled down the order until Ferrari eventually retired him on Lap 23.

Vasseur claims the damage cost Sainz “a lot”, but the Frenchman says Ferrari was reluctant to retire him earlier because of the potential for a red flag to appear when a mid-race rain shower arrived.

“In lap time no because it’s quite difficult because you’re losing downforce,” he said regarding the estimated time loss from the damage. “But it’s not just the downforce, it is the balance of the car.

“We never did the calculation of a potential lap time with x points and x points of balance, but it was a lot. We were just expecting a red flag at one stage to be able to fix it with the first shower, but when the show came without the red flag, we decided to stop it.”

After struggling at the previous two rounds, Ferrari returned to form at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit as Charles Leclerc secured the side’s third podium of the year.

That succeeded an encouraging two days prior to race day that had seen the Italian marque’s SF-23 car perform fairly competitively in a range of conditions.

Although Vasseur accepts that the field is separated by fine margins behind Red Bull, the Ferrari chief has challenged the team to minimise such wayward swings in performance during the second half of 2023.

“For sure, I’m happy that we did a strong weekend in every single conditions that are wet, slicks, long stints, short stints, that we are always there is good for us,” he explained. “Now we have to understand why we are more comfortable on some tracks than some others.

“But I think everybody is in the same situation that we are all a bit inconsistent. Because you have one or two-tenths between P2 and P11 it means that for characteristic of tyre management or level of downforce that you choose at the beginning of the weekend, you can do a very strong one and we don’t have to draw any definitive conclusion.

“But I think it will be like this until the end of the season and we have to be more consistent, to understand where we are weak, why we are weak and to try to minimise this kind of weekend.”

A fine effort from Leclerc to qualify second on Friday evening on a drying track marked a stark contrast to the struggles he had endured in similar conditions at the Spanish and Canadian Grands Prix earlier in the year.

The Monegasque driver had vowed to work on improving his showings in mixed conditions, but Vasseur says he was never concerned about Leclerc’s troubles.

“Yeah he had difficult races in a row, you are right, he had the Barcelona quali and then Spielberg or Canada in mixed condition,” he acknowledged.

“But he wanted to do some laps with slicks in Silverstone on the wet to have a good feeling without pressure, without lap time and I think he did it and he did it perfectly.

“I was not worried at all because I know him for ages and he was always performant in these kind of conditions but I think he had a poor session in Barcelona that didn’t go pretty well but I think the conditions were more than tricky and I was a bit surprised with this but it’s behind us.

“He showed that the in these tricky conditions he was able to be consistently on the front of the pack and he did a good job.”