Two things to share today, as usual from Scuderia Ferrari FRA. One, an interview from Vasseur that clarifies some stuff said before.
Charles is always the first to blame himself. But I'm not sure he's responsible for the setup. Sunday was tough, but overall, the weekend wasn't dramatic. We underestimated the time lost exiting the pits, which was very slippery. Just a few tenths of a second were enough to lose a position. In the grand scheme of the race, I don’t think it was decisive, because on the following lap, we would have had to pit under the Virtual Safety Car. Things would have changed if we had stayed on track and waited for the red flag.
Some choices were difficult to anticipate in advance. Regarding the pit stop, we can say that staying on track would have been the right decision given the red flag, but if we had had an accident, we would have looked foolish. These are difficult situations to manage. What was more problematic today were the setup and race pace. In terms of pace, we were 6-7 tenths slower than Norris at the start of the stint and just as fast at the end.
We knew this circuit would be tough for us and would favor McLaren more. In the end, we didn’t lose too many points. On the other hand, we want to score points, not lose them. There will be better weekends; it's not a big deal. Probably the next race in Las Vegas will be better for us.
Car development? We’ve been focusing on the 2025 project for months now.
Secondly, an article from Formu1a.uno about Brazil. The key point is that the Formu1a.uno team believes the Lico is NOT for the engine, and Leclerc's engine is in fine shape.
https://formu1a.uno/it/gp-del-brasile-e ... -i-limiti/
Ferrari was never in the fight in Brazil: some weaknesses of the SF-24 remain. The “lift” in the race is not due to the power unit. The Ferrari team in Brazil did not display the same happy faces as in the previous two races. The SF-24 at Interlagos was never in the fight for victory; this is indisputable. The verdict from the São Paulo circuit does not negate the great work done by the Maranello team to technically elevate the 676 project. It's clear that addressing every issue with in-season aerodynamic tweaks alone was technically impossible. Leclerc’s P5 minimized the damage, but Ferrari’s early pit stop attempt in the first stint for an undercut didn’t pay off. Running in dirty air also limits the performance of the Ferrari, with Leclerc never able to complete an attack on the VCARB and Alpine cars, leading to an early pit stop call. Heating the tires on a cold track is an area that requires work on the chassis and suspension, aiming for an optimized compromise for 2025.
I thought they had 3 or 4 sets of Inters at every race, not 5