Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has urged his team to up the ante and deliver flawless execution at the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix weekend, which also features a Sprint race. Vasseur stressed that this is not the moment to focus on calculations but to push to the limit, aiming to outperform McLaren and strengthen Ferrari’s position in the Constructors’ Championship battle.
Heading into the Qatar GP weekend, Ferrari trails McLaren by just 24 points. With the Lusail Circuit not being Ferrari SF-24 friendly, Vasseur has emphasized that the team put in its best to outperform the Woking outfit, which took over the lead in the championship from Red Bull after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
In addition, Ferrari also needs to watch out for Red Bull in third place, which trails by 29 points. Revealing that his team has been “operating at a very high level,” Vasseur stressed the importance of shifting everything to top gear for the next two races. He said:
“The Qatar GP is the last Sprint weekend of the year which, as always means the work the teams carry out back at base takes on greater importance than usual, as there is only one free practice session.
“There are 59 points up for grabs, but this isn’t the time to start doing the maths. All we can do is execute everything perfectly to ensure that Charles and Carlos can squeeze every last drop of performance out of the SF-24.
“We have seen, especially in recent races, that Formula 1 as a whole is operating at a very high level right now, with the slightest detail often making the difference, turning the accepted status quo on its head.
“It’s time for one last push over these next two weekends and our drivers, engineers and everyone in the team, both at the track and in Maranello are ready to give it our best shot.”
One good news for Ferrari is that drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have worked on their differences after the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which saw Sainz evade team orders. Leclerc revealed that the team remains focused on securing the Constructors’ Championship. He said ahead of the Qatar GP weekend:
“I don’t want to go back to what happened in Vegas.
“The last two races of the season and we need to do absolutely everything in order to get that Constructors’ Championship. That’s all that matters and whatever happened in Vegas, we discussed about it.
“I have a really good relationship with Carlos and we’ve sometimes had races where things don’t go exactly the way we want, but the most important thing is that we discuss it and we go forward.
“It’s very clear for both of us that we just want to win the constructors’ and it’s by working as a team that we achieve that. I’m sure there won’t be any problems with it.”
