The Ferrari team principal did not hide his frustration after the Hungarian Grand Prix, believing that the Scuderia had let slip a much better result by making multiple mistakes during the race.
After dominating both Friday practice sessions and establishing themselves as the main rival to McLaren throughout the weekend, Ferrari seemed capable of fighting for the podium, or even for the victory.
In the end, the Italian team had to settle for fourth and fifth places after a race marked by procedural errors, questionable strategic choices, and several incidents during the race.
Even though Ferrari still gained a point on Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, Vasseur believes that this is not enough to mask the disappointment.
“Everything went wrong”
The Frenchman considers that the SF-26 had the pace necessary to play a leading role: “It is difficult to precisely evaluate our pace, because the race could have been completely different if Charles had stayed second between the two McLarens after the start.”
For him, Ferrari mainly sabotaged itself: “It is not a good Sunday. When you finish first and second in Friday practice, you expect much better than fourth and fifth place.”
Vasseur then lists the mistakes made: “We made too many mistakes: the start, the penalty for speeding in the pit lane, the overtaking of Max Verstappen on track, then the fact that at each stop we lost a position for two or three tenths of a second.”
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The assessment is clear: “Everything went wrong. We need to do a much better job on Sunday. Our pace was probably better than at Spa or Silverstone. We finished top of FP1 and FP2, and we were capable of fighting for pole with Lewis. The problem is the execution.”
Hamilton victim of a complicated race
Lewis Hamilton’s race perfectly illustrates the difficulties encountered by Ferrari. A last pit stop that was too slow allowed Kimi Antonelli to overtake him, before a speeding penalty in the pit lane, caused by the premature deactivation of the limiter, worsened his situation.
Hamilton was also surprised by his team’s strategy during the Virtual Safety Car: “I’m not really sure why we stopped at the end. I got the call just before the pit entry, so I didn’t have time to discuss it.”
The Briton insists that he would never have accepted a stop if he had known he would lose his position on track: “I would never have stopped if it meant giving up my position. I thought that wouldn’t be the case.”
Vasseur defends the strategy nonetheless
Frédéric Vasseur nevertheless defended the pit wall: “We noticed that the soft tires worked quite well, especially thanks to the stint done by Max. So we chose this option because we were running on the hardest worn hard tires among the leading cars.”
The Ferrari boss also recalls that the bad start forced the team to adopt an aggressive strategy: “After our poor launch, we tried the undercut by putting on new tires very early. You have to make decisions before knowing the result. If I had to do it again today, I would make exactly the same decision and try again to attack with the soft tires.”
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