Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur admitted to having “races in my mind” where points were on the table in 2024, after narrowly missing out on Constructors’ glory to McLaren.
The Scuderia finished the season 14 times with McLaren under the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi, with Lando Norris holding on for what became an important victory at Yas Marina on Sunday night.
Additional reporting via Thomas Maher
While McLaren ended a 26-year drought in the constructors’ standings, Ferrari has not won a championship since 2008, but went into the Abu Dhabi final knowing that, by shuffling its rivals over 21 editions or more, they could win back the World Championship. at their level. Maranello.
Vasseur was right to highlight all the innovations that have been made across the board at Ferrari this season, but admitted that being so close to the name and lacking something made him look at “frustration” at the missing points, rather than when “there’s a bigger deficit.
Giving his review of the Ferrari year, Vasseur told the media with a smile and added to PlanetF1. com in Abu Dhabi: “Happy New Year, but enough is enough.
“I think that if you compare with one year ago, it’s a huge step forward. On every single KPI [key performance indicator], everything is green., and we did a good one in terms of pit stop strategy, reliability, we improved everywhere – even in terms of pure performance.
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“It is true that in the end there are 14 songs missing, and if you are 80 or a hundred songs behind you don’t feel the frustration. You have fourteen problems, or at least tonight I have tons of races in mind where we lost 14 problems this season, but it is what it is.
“McLaren also had some issues, and just that we have to do a better job next year – but I’m also quite proud of the step that we did.”
As for where they lost, Vasseur pointed to the team’s double-dip this season, in Montreal, where they were expected to be competitive, as a chance to rack up some smart points.
But in this mid-season race series between Canada and Silverstone, Ferrari scored 49 points, while McLaren scored 111 in the same 4 rounds.
In Hungary, a one-two finish for McLaren put even more daylight between the two teams, with another 23 points added to the gap – making it a game of catch-up for the remainder of the season that ultimately proved too much come season’s end.
“I think, on paper, Canada is a smart country for us, and we came back from Canada with a double zero,” Vasseur said.
“It’s a bit difficult, and we did 3 or 4 races in a row with the update when we were suffering a bit. In that period, I think we lost something like 80 or 90 problems with McLaren. “
“Then you had a tough weekend like Baku, even if we did a P2 with Charles, but I think we were in a position to do a much better job.
“Singapore is going through a tricky time, with the 9th and 10th cars in qualifying, I think we expected something much better, but that’s also true for McLaren.
“If you look closely, I think McLaren, if you drive during the season, you can encounter tons of problems, but it’s also my task to try and minimise those losses.
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