Vasseur completely convinced Ferrari can challange Red Bull

New Ferrari’s team principal Frederic Vasseur has expressed his full belief in the team’s capability of competing with the Red Bulls as the season progresses.

The Frenchman stated his satisfaction about the car’s concept and his hopefulness that the upcoming updates will cut the gap to what seems to be a dominant Red Bull machine.

Vasseur pointed out the team’s strong qualifying performance, which saw Charles Leclerc finishing third, only a tenth behind polesitter Max Verstappen and a mere 0,008 seconds behind second-placed Sergio Perez.

“I never saw a car able to match the pace of another one in quali and not be able to in the race. It’s a matter of set-up and some choices on the car – it’s not a matter of concept at all.” commented Vasseur.

The Frenchman hopes lie on the long 23-race calendar (the longest in history), which on paper may see a significant turnaround in car performance.

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However, the French boss is concerned about the reliability issues the team endured during the season opener in Bahrain, when lead driver Charles Leclerc had to pull off to the side of the track on lap 41 with power unit issue.

“It’s never good to start with a DNF and I would’ve preferred to finish like Red Bull, for sure,” said Vasseur

“But now I want to stay consistent in my position. I told the team before the test in Bahrain two weeks ago that the championship won’t be over in Bahrain – it doesn’t matter the result in any case. It was true for the wInter test, and it’s true for the first race. “

“The most important thing now is to be able to have a clear picture of the situation, where we are failing, do a proper analysis on this and to come back stronger as soon as possible.”

As things stand, the future does not seem very positive for the Tifosi team, as they sit 4th in the Constructor’s standings behind Red Bull, Aston Martin and Mercedes. The more concerning issue, however, is the car’s lack of pace, which saw them finish over 50 seconds behind cruising Verstappend with Sainz in 4th, who could barely fend off the Mercedes of Hamilton.