Scuderia
Ferrari team principal
Frederic Vasseur explained how his team discovered the lack of performance at the beginning of the 2023 season.
While everybody expected gaps between F1 teams to get smaller going into the 2023 season, the first race in
Bahrain showed
Red Bull did not sleep through the winter and made another big step forward.
Both
Max Verstappen and
Sergio Perez crossed the finish line more than 25 seconds ahead of
Fernando Alonso in third place and more than 35 seconds ahead of
Carlos Sainz in fourth place. As reported by motorsport.com, Frederic Vasseur said:
"For sure, I think the level of expectation was a bit too high at the beginning of the season. We understood quickly the situation after a couple of laps in Bahrain and even a couple of laps into the simulator before Bahrain."
On the other hand, Ferrari made a great step forward and was the only team that was able to beat the dominant Red Bull this season with Carlos Sainz's win in
Singapore. Vasseur continued:
"But what I would keep in mind this season is the reaction of the team. We had a tough moment but remember after Jeddah, Miami, Spain or Zandvoort, Zandvoort is not so far away and we were almost lapped"
Even though Red Bull remained dominant until the end of the season, Ferrari certainly closed the gap significantly and Vasseur believes that is something that the team can build on going into 2024.
"I think that we, compared to Zandvoort, collectively made a huge step forward and this is good for the future. It's on this progression that we can build for next year."