Zero podiums in two races and we started to win two titles, not one. The start of the Ferrari season is a nightmare, Gedda had to be the redemption after the misstep in Bahrain. And instead he amplified the defects of the car, when Leclerc and Sainz switched to hard tires they took a 25 ‘detachment from Perez’s Red Bull in 30 laps. Apart from the growing nervousness of Leclerc who vented several times over the radio during the race – for example: «It’s a m… to be so far behind and I don’t know what I can do» – Fred Vasseur’s doubts are also growing about the goodness of the project he inherited by the outgoing team principal Mattia Binotto.
In Jeddah he manifested his dissatisfaction clearly while sitting at a table in the Ferrari hospital and he addressed the technicians: “The first thing shall I ask the engineers? “Let’s not tell each other str…”. The most important thing in situations like these is to understand why we’re not doing well, we don’t have to tell each other str… We have to change, find out where we’re going wrong, and push. Enough words, enough speeches». Then he tries to sweeten, “sorry if I used a bad term but the meaning for me is clear: the car’s potential is good, maybe not quite as good as that of Red Bull, but we can’t exploit it except in a few moments”. ».
The French boss ruled out that behind the beating in Arabia there may have been a prudent choice on the engine, dictated by prudence after breakdowns. “We can’t change the mappings from qualifying to the race, today we didn’t have any reliability problems”. True, but on Friday the heat engines (V6 turbo) on the single-seaters of Leclerc and Sainz were replaced as a “precaution” and it is the sign of the anxiety that hovers around the power unit area. In the first race in Bahrain, two ECUs failed and Leclerc was forced to start here in Arabia with ten penalty positions.
Vasseur must find the answer as soon as possible: is the car difficult to develop or is it the wrong project? Technical updates had been brought to Jeddah – they only partially worked -, more will arrive in Australia. «Let’s try to keep calm, this is my job, it is useless to get caught up in fear now. Here it was not all to throw away, in certain moments we had improved compared to Bahrain, the real problem started when we put on the hard tyres. We must remain calm and understand what we are doing wrong. A car capable of aiming for the front row in qualifying and then going nowhere in the race is unimaginable. No, it is not imaginable. And he is right Fred in saying: «The only thing we can do now is push like crazy». Hoping that’s enough.
