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Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur is confident heading into the second round of the season in Saudi Arabia. This is due to the layout and surface of the street circuit in Jeddah.
After the first race in Bahrain earlier this month, Ferrari have been in dismay because of their performance. Contrary to last year, they didn't have the chance to win the Grand Prix because of the sheer control Red Bull driver Max Verstappen had in the race.
Adding to that, Charles Leclerc had to retire his car due to the electric PU component failing on his car. This wiped off any chances for the team to be on the podium since his teammate was unable to defend against Aston Martin.
However, moving to Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian GP, Fred Vasseur is quite confident of their performance on the track. He feels that the layout is good for SF-23 and so is the track surface. Hence, despite Leclerc's grid penalty (because of the CU change in his car) he feels the Maranello-based outfit is looking at a better weekend of racing.
Vasseur recently said:
"We found the cause of the issue that stopped Charles in Sakhir and will use the third CU on his car, which means that we will take a grid penalty. The Saudi Arabian track is very different to Bahrain in terms of layout and track surface, and top speed is particularly important. I’m confident that we can have a better weekend here."
Vasseur feels there's room to improve Ferrari SF-23's performance on this 'package'
After the Bahrain GP, it seems apparent that Ferrari will be looking forward to upgrading the SF-23 to catch up with Red Bull. Fred Vasseur feels that there is still room for improvement.
He said that the streets in Jeddah are different than in Bahrain, and there could be a better chance for the team. Vasseur claimed that he is wary of the pointers the team made after the race and will be working on that.
He said:
"We came away from the Grand Prix in Bahrain with a first picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our car and useful pointers for making progress."
He added:
"Comparing the SF-23’s qualifying and race performance, there’s still some room to improve our Sunday performance. We are working well as a team to extract the maximum from our package both in terms of drivability and reliability."
Ferrari will reportedly not be facing much tire degradation issues in Jeddah owing to the nature of the track surface. If that turns out to be true, and the car does feel competitive and reliable, they could get back the points they lost in the previous race.
