Frederic Vasseur has opened up on where he believes Ferrari currently stands in relation to its competitors. Vasseur’s recent remarks come after Ferrari had a disastrous race weekend in Australia, in which the team failed to score any points.
Even though Carlos Sainz was running in fourth for most of the Australian GP, he fell down to twelfth after he was handed a five-second penalty for causing a collision. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari crashed out on the opening lap of the race.
Frederic Vasseur explains where Ferrari currently stands
In a recent conversation with Motorsport Italy, Frederic Vasseur was asked for his comments to explain the greater straight-line pace advantage that Red Bull currently has over Ferrari. In reply, the 54-year-old said that he believes Ferrari has, in fact, reduced the deficit they have to Red Bull this season as compared to last year.
He then also added, “We have room for improvement in this area. But there is also no doubt that from what we have seen so far, Red Bull have done something different which is giving them an advantage”.
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Vasseur: “I think the difference was probably bigger last year. We expected to recover more on that front, but the gap was bigger last year.”
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Ferrari is way behind Red Bull in terms of the development of the car
Considering how the opening three races of the season have panned out, there is no denying that Ferrari is way behind Red Bull in terms of performance. And another major issue that they have is reliability.
Charles Leclerc kickstarted the 2023 season in the worst way possible as he retired from the Bahrain Grand Prix due to a power unit issue in his Ferrari. And that is not it, as other Ferrari-powered cars, such as Haas, have also had issues of their own.
After the VF-23 of Nico Hulkenberg seemingly suffered a power unit issue in the dying stages of the Australian GP this past weekend, Haas confirmed that there was a problem with their MGU-K. This is a massive worrying sign for Ferrari, having already fallen behind their rivals significantly in the championship.
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After three races, the Prancing Horse has just scored 26 points and is currently placed fourth in the championship. They are 30 points behind third-placed Mercedes and a further nine points behind second-placed Aston Martin. And the gap is a whopping 97 points when it comes to leaders Red Bull.
As a result of their disastrous start to 2023, Ferrari hopes they can get their act together as soon as possible. The next race weekend takes place in Baku from April 28 to 30.
