(Motorsport-Total.com) – After a promising start to the race weekend for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari could not meet the high expectations. Charles Leclerc speaks of a “disappointing weekend” after finishing fourth, while team boss Frederic Vasseur primarily criticizes the weak race execution.
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Sky expert Ralf Schumacher is also surprised by the Scuderia’s drop in performance. The slump compared to Friday, in particular, puzzles him: “That’s actually a big disappointment,” Schumacher says on Sky Germany. “On Friday, they were still half a second faster than the rest of the world and somehow didn’t manage to maintain that or build on it. Everyone else developed further.”
Schumacher also criticized the team’s strategy: “Fred Vasseur brought Lewis in at the wrong time. On track, Ferrari lost another position because of that. That was a bit of a shame. I think you’ll be able to read about that in Italy tomorrow.”
Leclerc: “A disappointing weekend”
Leclerc also makes no secret of his disappointment after the race: “Definitely not. It was a disappointing weekend,” says the Monegasque. Particularly puzzling for him is the almost unpredictable form curve of recent races: “Of the last three races, there were two where we expected to have problems, and we finished first and second. The race where we thought we would be strong, we finished in fourth and fifth places.”
For Leclerc, this is no coincidence: “Both cars show the same tendency. We are strong on weekends where we actually expect difficulties, and we struggle precisely when we believe we should be competitive. We need to understand that.”
At the same time, he points to the botched start, which decisively influenced the rest of the race: “With a good start, the race could have looked completely different. On a track like this, there are few overtaking opportunities.”
Tyre choice was correct from Leclerc’s perspective
At the start, Leclerc opted for soft tyres, even though he only had used softs available after a difficult qualifying session. “I wanted to take advantage of the soft tyre at the start,” he explains after the Grand Prix. “We believed it was the right tyre. And I think the race showed we were right. Many drivers also switched to the soft later. I don’t think the medium was particularly good today.”
Nevertheless, Ferrari was never consistently convincing in the race. “We paid the price for the start. The first stint on the hard tyres wasn’t bad, the last on the softs was pretty good. But overall, there were too many fluctuations. That’s exactly what we need to work on,” Leclerc continued.
The Monegasque also admits that the SF-26 is currently difficult to assess: “We need to find more consistency with this car. Some stints were difficult for Lewis, others for me. It’s a bit strange how little the different impressions match up.”
Ferrari searches for the causes
Leclerc also admitted to Sky Germany that Ferrari had apparently misjudged the track conditions. “It’s a combination of different factors,” he said.
“I haven’t seen the data yet, but I felt like I did roughly what I wanted to do. However, we tuned the car for a certain grip level. In fact, there was probably significantly less grip than expected. This caused me to have a lot of wheelspin, and that was very difficult to control,” Leclerc continued.
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The fact that Ferrari has recently fallen short of its own expectations on technical tracks is an additional concern for the Monegasque. “I believe Mercedes runs quite conservative engine programs on Friday. On Saturday, we were no longer at Friday’s level,” he explains.
“Everyone expects us to be particularly strong on such technical tracks. But whether in Budapest or Monaco, we weren’t where we expected to be. We need to understand what we’re doing wrong on these tracks, because for some reason it’s not working,” Leclerc continued.
Vasseur: “Everything went wrong on Sunday”
Team boss Vasseur primarily blamed the numerous errors in the race for the disappointing result.
“When you’re first and second on Friday, you expect significantly more than fourth and fifth places,” says the Frenchman soberly. “We made too many mistakes on Sunday. Starting with the start, then the penalty, then Max overtook us on track. At almost every pit stop, we lost a position due to two or three tenths of a second. After that, you spend the whole race behind other cars.”
However, the true race pace was difficult to assess, Vasseur admits. “Lando was extremely fast today, significantly faster than Oscar. Behind Oscar, we were probably a bit faster. But with these cars, it’s very difficult to judge how fast you really are when you’re not in clear air.”
Strategy correct despite setback
The team boss also defended the strategy. After the bad start, Ferrari had to react early and attempt the undercut. “About 20 laps from the end, we realized from Max’s stint that the soft tyre wasn’t bad at all. That’s why we opted for the soft, because we had the oldest set of hard tyres in the field,” Vasseur said.
The team boss further explains the strategy: “After the bad start, we had to try something and attempt the undercut. This means you have to make your decisions earlier than the competition. If I had to decide again today, I would choose the soft again.”
However, the team was surprised that Verstappen was ultimately able to complete around 37 laps on a set of soft tyres. “We had expected the tyre to last perhaps only half as long. The hard tyre was significantly more difficult than expected, but we only realized that very late. At that point, we could no longer react to the development. That probably surprised everyone,” says the Ferrari team boss.
For Ferrari, the analysis work begins during the summer break. The Maranello team must find the causes for the recently highly fluctuating performances before the season enters its decisive phase.
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