Vasseur reveals Ferrari’s issue in Las Vegas

Following a tough race at a venue which had been expected to favour Ferrari’s SF24, the Scuderia’s team boss Fred Vasseur has pinpointed “inconsistent performance” as the reason for failing to challenge for the race win.

Ferrari were favourites heading into the Las Vegas weekend, but they were caught by surprise on Thursday when Mercedes started to display a shocking performance.

The Scuderia managed to secure encouraging starting positions for the race, with Carlos Sainz taking second and Charles Leclerc fourth for the 50-lap Nevadan round. The Monégasque then had a brilliant start, jumping to second at the first corner while the Spaniard dropped to third.

Although the two Ferrari drivers appeared to be the quickest in the opening stages of the race, their tyre completely fell off the cliff on Lap 8 which forced them to pit for a new set of hards. However, their pace on the hards was impressive again and managed to salvage their day by climbing through the field to secure a third and fourth place for the Scuderia.

Reflecting on a tough race for Ferrari, team boss Fred Vasseur said that the SF24’s performance was too inconsistent for being able to challenge for the victory at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“First of all, congratulation to Max Verstappen on winning the title. As for our race, we struggled a lot in the first stint on the Mediums, losing about two seconds per lap towards the end and again at the end of the second stint, the first one on the Hards.

“Overall, our pace on the Hards was decent, but we lost too much time in the early stages and generally our pace was a bit too inconsistent. In the end today’s race was a case of damage limitation, but at some point we have to score more points than everyone else and we cannot just settle for this damage limitation if we want to keep the fight open.

While he hopes that Ferrari can keep their title aspirations alive at next weekend’s Qatar race, Vasseur fears that the track will expose the SF24’s weaknesses.

“We scored 12 points more than McLaren and 16 more than Red Bull. Let’s see what we can do next week in Qatar, a track that on paper does not suit us best, but in which there is a Sprint and so even more points on offer. As a team, we need to do a better job at the next race,” concluded the Frenchman.