Ferrari had ‘most difficult Friday for three seasons’ at Zandvoort – Vasseur

Ferrari had its toughest start to a race weekend in years at Zandvoort, according to team principal Frederic Vasseur.

The team’s drivers ended the opening practice session 14th and 15th on Friday. They rebounded to qualify sixth and seventh but Vasseur said they were still suffering the consequences of their poor start to the event.

“It’s not magic, but if you compare with the results of Friday, it’s a huge step forward,” he told the official Formula 1 channel after qualifying. “It was, for sure, the most difficult Friday of the last two or three seasons.”

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished Q2 in the top five but couldn’t improve on their times in the final stage of qualifying.

“We did a good recovery today,” said Vasseur, “but the issue is that when you are coming from so far away, it is not easy to be at the limit and to avoid mistakes.

“That’s what’s happened a little bit in Q3. I think that we are not that far away, with our lap [time] from Q2 we would have been [fourth].

“But it is like it is. If we have to improve, it’s much more on Friday than something else.”

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With the McLaren drivers locking out the front row of the grid, Ferrari need to find a way past Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar and George Russell to reach the podium. Vasseur drew encouragement from the fact they have both cars near the front of the field.

“If we do the same step forward for tomorrow, it’s good news, but it will be more difficult,” he said. “I think McLaren is outstanding again and we have to be focused on the cars with us on the grid, Russell, Verstappen, Hadjar, and to try to finish on the podium.

“At least we have two cars [near the front] as the strategy is once again a bit on the edge. It’s always good to have two cars in this situation.”

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