"It was not a good result": Fred Vasseur concedes Ferrari did not have the race pace to compete at 2023 F1 Saudi Arabian GP

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has admitted that it was not a good result for the team at the Saudi Arabian GP after they finished P6 and P7 respectively, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

It was a mixed start to the race for the team as Sainz dropped a position and moved to P5 while Leclerc was on the charge through the field and made his way back to the top 10. However, their race pace stalled after both drivers switched to hard tires in their second stints and were unable to make further progress.

While speaking to Sky Sports, the Ferrari team principal said:

"No, it's not a good result. The first stint went well with the soft and medium, we were on the pace and Charles did a good first part of the race and then with the hard we struggled a lot more and we didn't have the pace."

He added:

"The most difficult in my business after a race like this is to understand what is going well and what is not. We have positive points, but we need a step on reliability. Even for the first stint of the race, we can be happy with it, but the race was based on the last stint and clearly, we did not have the pace.

"In the tire management, we were a bit conservative, but it's only a matter of one or two-tenths. Nothing to do with the gap we had today. We need to understand the lack of performance and it's not the tire management."

"Overall, we can’t be satisfied with today’s result" - Ferrari team boss

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur revealed that the team would not be satisfied with Sunday's race and wanted answers for their lack of race pace.

While analyzing his race for Ferrari's official website, he said:

"Overall, we can’t be satisfied with today’s result. We did not have the pace we were expecting from our car, especially on the Hard tire. There was also a big gap in our performance level between qualifying and the race. There is still a long way to go this season and we will continue to fight. We are fully committed to maximizing our package and further developing the SF-23 for the upcoming rounds."

It would be fascinating to see if Ferrari can bounce back and get themselves back into the fight for podiums in the next races and stop their season from derailing.