Ferrari had the race pace to challenge Mercedes at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, but a difficult qualifying session and imperfect race execution prevented the team from achieving the strongest possible result, according to team principal Fred Vasseur.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished directly behind George Russell at Zandvoort. Vasseur believes Ferrari was faster than Mercedes over race distance, but both Ferrari drivers started outside the top two rows after qualifying, while slow execution during the race cost the team further opportunities.
“I think the pace was strong, I think at least stronger than Mercedes,” the Frenchman told Sky Sports, “but it is like it is, that we have to now have a deep look on what we did and what we did wrong.”
Ferrari lost ground through starts and pit strategy
Leclerc also endured a slow getaway at the second start, allowing Oscar Piastri to pass him around the outside at Turn 1. The overtake was particularly notable because Piastri was running hard tyres while Leclerc had softs.
Ferrari later made a slow pit stop with Leclerc and missed an opportunity to move ahead of Russell after Leclerc had cleared Piastri. Vasseur said the Ferrari’s performance was “not an issue” in the Netherlands, but the team failed to unlock its potential during Saturday’s qualifying session.
“I think the pace this weekend was good, at least, in both races,” he noted, speaking to the media after the race. “If we missed something this weekend it’s more the quali first. Not in the sprint quali, but in the [main] quali, we had a poor preparation with an out-lap and so on.
“And the execution [in the race] was not that good, because we had a very strong start in the first start, and in the second start we lost position with soft compared to some hard competitors, and this is unexpected. And then we had a poor pitstop and then it was difficult. But the pace itself was decent, it’s not an issue at all.”
Tyre preparation hurt Ferrari in qualifying
Leclerc qualified third for Friday’s sprint race, only 0.055 seconds behind Russell, while Hamilton was sixth, 0.624 seconds off pole position. However, both Ferrari drivers struggled to generate enough tyre temperature in Saturday’s qualifying session and ultimately qualified fifth and sixth.
Ferrari had even used an additional preparation lap compared with its main rivals in Q3. Hamilton identified tyre performance as the key problem after qualifying.
“I think the tyres were the biggest culprit today, just really struggling to get the tyres to work,” he commented after qualifying. “They’re not really in in the first sector, that’s where we lost most of our time, and then they get better through the lap. Just do an out-lap and a prep lap, and the tyres are still not ready for Turn 1, it’s just nuts.”
Asked whether Ferrari should focus on upgrading the car or wait for its new power unit before targeting improvements in qualifying, Vasseur said the team first needed to understand how to prepare its tyres more effectively for flying laps.
“For sure, it’s always better to have a better aero, better suspension, better engine, it’s always helping,” Vasseur said. “But I think if we miss something in quali… but it was not true all the season. We had some races like Spielberg where we did a better job in quali than in the race. We were in the first row, we were second and third and we struggled a bit more in the race.
“The issue is that in quali, it’s a lot about the out-lap preparation, tyre management. But it’s a different approach of the tyre management in quali than in the race. You can be good on one side and not on the other one, from one weekend to the other. This weekend, I think we had a decent approach for the sprint quali, a bit more difficult [on Saturday] with cold conditions. And it’s so tight that on the sprint quali you have four cars in six-hundredths of seconds.
“You saw Lewis on the first day. He had to slow down a little bit after Turn 10 [on his outlap], because he had two or three cars in front of him and he lost [time in] Turn 1. It cost him two or three tenths and in this case you are losing four positions and it’s becoming a poor quali. It’s true for us, but it’s true for everybody, that you have to put a lot of effort in the preparation of each lap.
“If we have to learn something from the weekend, it’s not about the pure potential. It’s more about execution these two days. We were able to be there in terms of performance at some stages of the weekend, but we have to be there always.”
Ferrari remains second in the standings
Ferrari leaves Zandvoort second in the championship standings, 87 points behind Mercedes. McLaren has won the last two races with Lando Norris and reduced its deficit to Ferrari to 75 points ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
