Ferrari trio reflect on F1 Japanese GP where it had some solace after Charles Leclerc beat Mercedes, but Lewis Hamilton lost to both despite gaining a place.
While Red Bull and McLaren fought it out at the front of F1 Japanese GP, Ferrari were in no mans land like Mercedes behind them. Leclerc made a good start and kept George Russell at bay, while Hamilton picked up Isack Hadjar in the opening sequence to run seventh for most part.
There was nothing more Leclerc could have done to press on Oscar Piastri ahead as he realised the Ferrari didn’t have enough performance to push through, even though he felt comfortable in the car. He is banking on updates, much like teammate Hamilton, who hinted on rear being the culprit.
He ran different set-up to Leclerc and even went for a different strategy in a bid for a safety car intervention. But with low degradation and no safety car, the hard tyre start was of no use to catch and pass Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead. He felt Ferrari were slower than Mercedes anyhow.
It has not been an ideal start certainly as team boss Vasseur agrees. They had similar one last year where they were down by six tenths. The only solace this year is that they are down by two-three tenths, which they feel they can recover with the updates to come.
Race, strategy –
Hamilton: “In the end, there was no safety car, so it didn’t really make much difference. I think the medium was definitely better for the start of the race, especially in these cool conditions. In general, Mercedes are faster than us [anyways], that’s why you saw they were so close to Charles, they just have more pace than us. When I was behind him, he was just so much quicker through certain parts of the circuit, I couldn’t follow.
“Overall, I’m very happy I moved forward. I’m really hoping in the next race we’ll see, hopefully, some positive changes. Through the first three races, there’s been a bit of a deficit between both sides of the garage on the car. So, on my side, something’s underperforming, so it’s good to know. I mean, with what I had, that’s the best result I could get.”
Leclerc: “It was a bit of an annoying race, on my one, I was completely on my own. The guys in front were too quick. In the first stint I thought maybe there was something to do, but then they started to push more and they were just faster. It’s disappointing because when you put everything together like we’ve done this weekend, I think the balance was in the right place, there’s just not enough performance in the car.
“For now, we’ve just got to maximise the points, which is what we have done, and I hope that later on in the season we can fight for better. In terms of beating Mercedes, yeah [it was good]. But again it doesn’t really make me happy, that’s really not the target, but, at least as I said, we’ve maximised the result.”
Vasseur: “It is part of the grid position [with Lewis’ strategy] and part of the fact that we didn’t run the medium or the hard in the weekend, we went a bit blind and we didn’t want to put the eggs in the same basket. At the end, you didn’t have big difference in the compound in the race, it was quite difficult to read, not the same confusion from team to team, from cars to cars.”
Ailing where –
Hamilton: “I have to check but I was maximum today. I didn’t have anything else in the car. Had underperformance happening at the rear of the car this weekend. And obviously, qualifying position is key. I think I probably would have been overtaken by Mercedes if I was any further ahead. I am hoping in the next race we get some help to get closer. It definitely will be interesting [in Bahrain], I think we’re probably the fourth-fastest, clearly, at the moment. I think we are a little bit off the other guys in terms of performance – downforce level-wise – so we’ve got some work to do to close the gap.”
Gap to rivals –
Hamilton: “We will slowly progress the car. It’ll be interesting to see when people get upgrades for the season. We’ve got a lot of work to be able to close the gap to the top cars. The top guys probably have three or four-tenths on us, so we’ve got a lot of work to bring upgrades for that. That I don’t know [if we have updates in Bahrain].”
Leclerc: “A bit everywhere. Maybe if anything the first sector was a little bit weaker. But that’s only by eye which can be a little bit confusing sometimes in the car. Because with the speed you have this yo-yo effect as well that is difficult to take everything out of it, because they were still quite far, like two seconds ahead. But my feeling was that we weren’t particularly good in the first sector. I think this is the pace. Honestly, what we’ve shown is that there’s not much more in the car, so I think that’s where we are.”
Vasseur: “I don’t think we maximised but it is true for everybody including the others, probably they can find the potential there, like Max did in quali lap but on average in the picture, we are 2-3 tenths behind pole position and perhaps 2-3 tenths behind in the race. That’s the true picture and we have to work from there. I didn’t spend the winter with the expectation that in Race 1, we will be there or there, but just going to Australia to race and try to get the best from what we have. We had exactly same approach last year, we were able to comeback the first couple of races, we were six tenths off on average, and we were able to come back during the season.
“It means that we have to keep the same approach, it doesn’t matter the gap, what matters is the result of Japan that we need to we need to try to do a better job next week to extract the potential of the car and its operation. We have to improve everywhere. And at least we did a step forward compared to last week, at least on the operation [side] and we have to start from there. It’s not ideal at the start of the season for sure. But it’s still a long one… still 21 to go.”
Learned things –
Leclerc: “I think I learned plenty about the car this weekend, so that is the positive of the weekend really. As much as we are disappointed with the fourth place, we should be happy of us maximising the result and we should be happy about all the lessons learned this weekend. As I said, Friday I think was a really, really good day for that. I really went in quite extreme directions in an idea that I’ve had since two or three weeks. I wanted to try it and it worked out, so I was really happy with that.”
Radio chat –
Leclerc: “I think it will be like that all season, I always tell him to ‘please repeat it’. And then one point I get annoyed because sometimes we just don’t hear the first time, but sometimes you do hear it first time and by the third time you want him to stop speaking about it, but yeah, there’s no problem at all.
Current situation, ideal or not –
Vasseur: “If last year we did a good step forward from beginning of the season to mid-season, it is not that we found a magic bullet, we can never find something on the car that is three or four tenths, quite often if you improve, that means you are putting together area with two or three seconds and you are putting everything together, you are improving on the balance, you are helping the driver to get the best from the car. Honestly, in qualifying we were not that far away but it was very difficult for us, I think it probably the same for McLaren to put a lap together. But if you look at the lap of Charles, he lost a lot in the chicane and also in the first corner, but it is not an excuse, I am not trying to say we have the best car at all.
“Because it is the same for Piastri and exactly the same for everybody that when you are at a certain point, it is difficult to get the best of the car, and also you have to improve on this…drivability lets put it, to get from the potential. I am use to it because the last two years we started like this. For sure it is not an ideal, I would prefer to win the first one than finish P5, this is clear. But on the other hand, we don’t have to change the approach compared to last year, when we look, we are almost in the same situation, perhaps a bit worse in terms of pace and reaction of the team was very-very strong, we worked as a team, we made small steps by small steps and we have to exactly keep the same approach but sure it is not ideal and I would prefer to win the first few.”
Here’s how F1 Japanese GP panned out