‘It was not a good fight’ – Vasseur explains main issue behind Ferrari’s struggles in Austrian Grand Prix

Fred Vasseur believes that Ferrari’s tough afternoon at the Austrian Grand Prix was down to a lack of pace in comparison to their rivals rather than their strategy, though the team boss acknowledged that the squad tried to take strategic “risks” to compensate for the pace issues.

After what Charles Leclerc deemed as a “particularly difficult Friday” for the Scuderia, the team’s fortunes looked to have improved somewhat on Saturday when Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton secured P2 and P3 on the grid.

However, Sunday would prove a trickier affair for the Italian outfit, with both drivers going onto a three-stop strategy after struggling with tyre degradation in the hot conditions. Hamilton – who returned to the top step of the podium last time out in Barcelona – would cross the line in fifth, while Leclerc ended the event in eighth place.

Speaking to F1 TV after the race, Vasseur was quizzed on how the race had unfolded and the strategy decisions regarding the extra pit stops, to which he responded: “Oh, the strategy is not the issue, I think the issue is that we didn’t have the pace of the Mercedes and [Max] Verstappen.

“We tried to compensate taking risks on the strategy, but it was not a good fight. I think it was more a matter of pace, and we paid also [the price for] the poor Friday we had.”

Pushed on whether he was surprised by just how much the team were off the pace of their rivals, the Team Principal said: “I think compared to McLaren we are there, compared to Mercedes and Max it was more difficult.

“We overpushed probably the first couple of laps to stay with them, and we destroyed a bit everything.”

The race also marked another difficult outing for Leclerc, who faced a tough spell during the recent double header of Monaco and Barcelona after recording a DNF at both events.

Vasseur spoke positively about how the Monegasque had been feeling in the car on Saturday and Sunday in Spielberg, however, commenting: “He was yesterday on the first row, which means that the confidence was there, and was there today.

“It’s more a matter of overheating and destroying everything, it’s nothing to do with [his] pace.”

With the British Grand Prix – Hamilton’s home race – just a few days away, Vasseur said in a separate post-race statement released by Ferrari that the squad would take the learnings forward from Austria into that event.

“Looking back, we were probably too focused on Mercedes today,” the Frenchman explained. “We pushed too hard in the opening laps with both cars and then perhaps reacted too aggressively with the strategy, trying to stay with them when, realistically, that wasn’t our race today.

“We will learn from this, refocus on ourselves and immediately turn our attention to the British Grand Prix next week.”