Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur is making process on the driveability and consistency improvements it’s been chasing on the SF-23.
Charles Leclerc recorded a season’s best second place at the Austrian Grand Prix a week ago, while team-mate Carlos Sainz was fourth across the line but demoted in the final classification.
Ferrari was the second fastest team at the Red Bull Ring, a positive result off the back of a promising Canadian Grand Prix.
The Scuderia introduced parts in Spain and Austria, though it has none in Silverstone for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
“We are looking for more consistency and drivability from the car from the beginning of the season,” Vasseur said.
“I think we did a decent step forward, Barcelona first one.
“Barcelona was quite difficult and Montreal was much before for us.
“Then we did another step in Austria.
“We are going on this direction, we are focussed on this, and we did the two different steps.
“But it’s not the end,” he added.
“We still have 12 or 13 races to go and it will be a long fight.”
Tyre degradation has been a bugbear for Ferrari throughout the season, and while that hasn’t proved such an issue over the last two races, Vasseur warns it’s unlikely to have been resolved entirely.
“You have to do a reset every single weekend,” he reasoned.
“We are in a group from P2 to P10 that you can move from one session to the other one, from the top to the bottom.
“And you don’t have to come to the next event full of conviction, but I think the most important is to be open-minded and continue to push, but nothing is done.”
Ferrari showed promising pace on Friday in Silverstone, especially given highspeed handling has been a weak point for the SF-23.
However, it wasn’t without its issues with Charles Leclerc’s second practice session hindered by an electrical problem that kept him in the garage.
Sainz did get out, showing good pace on the soft tyres in the early running to all but match Max Verstappen’s best of the session to that point.
Vasseur, however, warns against reading too much into the day’s running.
“If you consider the last two races, I think we are still a step down compared to Max and it will be a challenge [to compete for victory],” he said.
“But at least to be in front of the others, and you don’t know what could happen.”
Discussion about this post