'We Understood Quickly The Situation': Vasseur Reflects On Disappointing First Race

Saturday, 02 December 2023 at 18:00

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."”

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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 Ferrari finished third in the Constructors' Championship, it is believed that the Italian team had a faster car compared to Mercedes but was just less consistent .

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."”