Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has revealed the issues encountered on this year’s SF-23 will not be easy to solve.
Despite upgrades on the car, the recent Spanish Grand Prix further underlined the problems Ferrari is struggling to overcome.
Aside from Leclerc’s car struggling to turn left during qualifying which resulted in him starting from the pit lane, one of the main concerns was its unpredictability throughout the race, even on the same compound of Pirelli tyres.
“The main issue is the inconsistency,” explained Vasseur. “I would say the global picture is the same.
“We are there in quali, and we are not there in the race. We are inconsistent with the same car between compounds and sometimes between the same compounds.
“On Charles’ car for example, between the first and third stints with the same compound, in the first, the balance was out of place, and in the last, it was okay-ish. With Carlos, he did a decent first stint, and in the middle, he lost 15 or 20 seconds.”
Dismissing tyre degradation as a possible cause, Vasseur remarked: “We have 1,000 people focused on this now but it is very difficult to understand and to fix it because it’s not always the same problem.
“It’s true that in quali, you are in free air, and in the race you are not. For example, Charles struggled a lot in the first stint but he was also closer than to the guy in front of him.”
Suggested to Vasseur the car could react differently in the turbulent air when following, the Frenchman replied: “It could be an option.
“But if you have a look at Carlos’ second stint, he was also in free air and it was a disaster.”
As to the direction now with regard to further upgrades, Vasseur added: “Yes, perhaps we can steer the development on (fixing) the inconsistency, and to have something a bit more easy to drive.
“But the issue is less on the chassis side and more from stint to stint.”
Despite the issues and the fact Ferrari was comprehensively out-performed by Mercedes during the race in Spain, Vasseur is confident his team can challenge one of its main rivals over the remainder of the season.
“We are probably faster than them in quali but slower than them in the race,” said Vasseur.
“But as soon as we unlock this situation with consistency we can imagine a fight with them throughout the race.
“With Red Bull, it’s another story, especially with (Max) Verstappen. He is still much faster than us in quali, much faster in the race.”
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