After a complicated start to the season, Ferrari has shown its true speed during the Australian Grand Prix race. Although their performance in the qualifying session was a bit disappointing, the Italian team managed to improve significantly during the race, finishing in third and fourth positions.
The team director, Fred Vasseur, acknowledged that they didn’t manage to “put it all together” in qualifying, where the gap to the leaders was evident. The maximum speed that the team achieved in Melbourne allowed them to fight for victory with Mercedes driver George Russell at one point in the race.
In qualifying, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were nearly a second off the best time, while in the race their performance was much more encouraging. Vasseur is optimistic: “The feeling is more positive now. We had a tough Saturday, but we recovered a significant part during the race.”
Leclerc had a spectacular start and led the race at the first corner, an improvement over what had been seen in preseason testing. With these new changes in the regulation for starting, some teams had problems, while Ferrari demonstrated good adaptation.
However, Vasseur warns that their advantage may not necessarily hold in all races. “We must be prepared for a different type of race in China, with weather conditions that could be completely opposite. Then, strategies will be more complicated and experience will be essential,” added the Ferrari director.
