Fred Vasseur comments on major Ferrari weakness: "Strategy is a critical part of Formula 1"

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur recently spoke about Ferrari's major weakness and strategy. The former Alfa Romeo boss talked about how the strategy was one of the more critical parts of F1 and how it can become complicated when different variables like the tire, the timing of sessions, and other such things are added into the equation.

Ferrari suffered majorly from making proper strategic decisions last season. Multiple race wins at Monaco, Silverstone (for Charles Leclerc), and Hungary was lost because the team could not make the right decisions at the right time.

Speaking about the importance of strategy in F1, the newly appointed Ferrari boss told Racecar Engineering:

“Strategy is a critical part of Formula 1. However, it is made complex by specific allocations such as tyres, the timing of sessions throughout the race weekend, and developing and bringing new parts to the circuits where they’re going to be most performant."

"The closer you are to peak performance, the more dramatic the effect of any single mistake in the operations or strategy."

He added that one needs to be sure that he's doing the right thing at the right to exploit the opportunities that open up in a race. He said:

"You must be sure you’re doing the right thing at the right time to exploit the opportunities you have to collect data and make progress. Strategy during the race is entirely different. It hinges on what’s about to happen next and how to make the most of that."

"Teams are constantly looking at the next lap and simultaneously checking what their rivals are doing to see if they must manipulate what they’re going to do next because of what the rivals are doing."

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The Ferrari boss touches on the importance of the safety car and the decisions accompanying that stage of the race

Fred Vasseur talked about the importance of judging what is the right thing to do at the right time. He also spoke about the scenarios that opened up in our sport, including the safety car, as he said:

“It also knows whether there are points in some races where your competitors might make mistakes. Typically, this will be around when tyre degradation is high, or some drivers are fighting for position."

"In moments like this, it can change your entire race. If there is a Safety Car, for example, you can make giant jumps in the field or make good progress on a new set of tyres when others are not putting in the best lap times.”

The strategy was an Achilles heel for Ferrari last seen and it hurt both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc at various moments. It will be interesting to see if there are improvements on that front this season.