Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur believes the team is going in the right direction despite admitting Red Bull was faster during the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.
After three awful weekends and a turbulent break, Ferrari finally found its feet in Baku, with Charles Leclerc taking pole for the Sprint and GP, but he still couldn’t hold off Red Bull, who wrapped up a one-two.
“The pace was okay over the weekend,” said Vasseur to the media. “If you look at the last stint in the race, I am not sure that Red Bull planned to do two stints.
“They were pushing like hell from the beginning to the end. We were managing a lot in the beginning, we thought we would have a tyre advantage at the end, but overall they were faster than us.
“We don’t have to bulls**t ourselves. I think so far, it’s obvious we are struggling with consistency. Throughout this weekend, I thought the car was much more consistent, and we’re going in the right direction.”
Sainz’s lack of confidence stemmed from Q1 error
Whilst Leclerc found his sweet spot, the same couldn’t be said for Carlos Sainz, who struggled with confidence during the weekend.
Nonetheless, Sainz dug deep and enjoyed a clean race finishing a distant fifth behind countryman Fernando Alonso.
“Carlos lacked confidence from the beginning of the weekend,” said Vasseur. “I think it came from the fact he lost the car at Turn 1 in Q1, and he had to use a second set [of tyres] at that stage of the session.
“The lack of confidence came with this new format, I think it’s quite difficult to recover because when you have FP1, FP2, FP3, some drivers can build up the pace over the weekend.
“I am more than happy with the job Carlos has done because even in this situation, he’s able to finish P5, and he had decent pace in the race.
“We know perfectly that on some occasions that [you can be] up and down, it’s sport.”
