Ferrari Formula 1 boss Fred Vasseur believes a better understanding of the tyres will net improvements for his team.

Carlos Sainz was the first Ferrari home in sixth in Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, one spot ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The Scuderia sits fourth in the constructors’ championship with 26 points after two rounds.

It is 12 points down on Aston Martin and Mercedes, and 61 back from Red Bull.

Single lap pace

Leclerc recorded the second-best time in qualifying in Jeddah, while Ferrari locked out the second row in Bahrain.

It highlights a problem with the SF-23’s race pace.

“I think that the pace was decent [in qualifying] because we made a step forward and we opened the gap compared to Mercedes and Aston [Martin] on quali,” Vasseur said.

“I think that, at least with Charles, we were four-tenths faster than Aston and than Mercedes.”

In Sunday’s race, Sainz slipped from fourth to fifth on the opening lap before falling behind Lewis Hamilton shortly after the Safety Car restart mid-race.

Leclerc meanwhile started 12th after his 10-place grid penalty but made swift progress in the early stages using a set of soft compound tyres.

He was ninth at the end of the opening lap, climbing to fifth by the time the Safety Car emerged.

Following the restart, he found himself seventh, a position he maintained for the balance of the race.

Hard tyres hurt Ferrari

“The first stint went pretty well also, Charles had a good come back but he was with soft [compound tyres] and nobody knows about the different compounds,” Vasseur said, suggesting little can be gleaned from the stint since the bulk of the field started on the medium rubber.

“Charles was in a decent pace on the first stint with medium [tyres] compared to the others, and we lost completely the ground with the hard.

“That’s where we have to understand that [is] the main issue.

“We have some improvement to do clearly on the management of the different compounds.”

The Saudi Arabian performance followed a similar scenario in Bahrain when Sainz was powerless to defend countryman Fernando Alonso in the final stint.

High tyre wear saw Sainz struggling for pace, noting to his team that fighting with his Aston Martin rival would leave him with no rubber left to get to the flag.

Alonso claimed third on that occasion with Sainz fourth, the only Ferrari to reach the finish after a Control Electronics failure eliminated Leclerc from the race.