Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur, has been openly critical of his team’s performance in Shanghai telling motorsport.com “we collectively made too many mistakes.”
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Ferrari showed themselves as the second best team in 2024 with consistent podiums and even a 1-2 in Australia.
However, the prancing horses were struggling from the first practice session through till Sunday’s race.
F1 has not raced in Shanghai for 5 years, which meant there was no data for this regulation of cars on this circuit.
China was also the first sprint race of the season. This gave teams only one free practice session to get that data.
This limited knowledge paired with the changing weather and recently resurfaced track could’ve explained why Ferrari got it wrong.
However, Vasseur avoided excuses explaining to Motorsport.com “It’s the same for everyone and some teams managed it better than others. We have to understand if we can do a better job with the preparation.”
Ferrari’s biggest issue was not being able to warm up their tyres. This led to them losing six tenths to Verstappen in qualifying, ending up 6th and 7th.
Qualifying has been a recurring problem for the pair, with Charles Leclerc suffering more so far this season.
Although Charles Leclerc admitted to Motorsport Week that the car had been set up “mostly for the race” at Shanghai.
Despite concerns about qualifying, he stated, “We have good race pace.”
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The Race
Both drivers lost out at the start, losing places to Nico Hulkenberg and George Russell. It was clear in their race start that the grip was just not there.
Although, the first stint on medium tyres saw Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both show enough pace to move up; Charles to 4th and Carlos to 6th.
The safety car was when Ferrari’s race halted.
Charles pitted under the safety car, putting on hard tyres. However, he spent the rest of the race struggling to bring them to life. Resulting in P4.
Carlos, alternatively, pitted 5 laps before the safety car. Leaving him with a tyre-disadvantage compared to the surrounding cars. Leaving him in P5.
Fred Vasseur recognised the hard compound tyre was a weakness in China, confirming to Motorsport.com “we were in a good position at the end of the stint of medium, but we lost ground on the hard.”
Ferrari had both been hopeful for a podium heading into Sunday. It never came.
Fred recognised, “It’s a matter of putting everything together,” telling Motorsport.com, “We have a pack with six or seven cars in one tenth in qualifying. That means due to details, you can move from hero to zero.”
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