Vasseur hints at tyre issues that held Ferrari back in Qatar

On the back of an unexpectedly difficult weekend for Ferrari, the Scuderia’s team boss Fred Vasseur has hinted at tyre issues that could have held the Maranello-based outfit back in Qatar.

Having struggled for outright pace all through the race weekend in Qatar, Ferrari continued to lack performance during the 57-lap encounter.

Charles Leclerc dropped places off the line, falling behind the Kick Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg. Although he gained places after the clash between Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly, he never really looked able to fight for anything better than an eighth place.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton elected to start on the softs, which helped him gain off the line. However, when the safety car was deployed, and the majority of the field opted to complete the first of two mandatory pit stops, the Briton lost position as he needed to wait for his team to complete Leclerc’s tyre service.

When Isack Hadjar dropped out late on with a puncture, Hamilton climbed up to 12th, but it was not enough to score any points in the penultimate round of the season.

Following the disastrous weekend for Ferrari, the Scuderia’s team boss Fred Vasseur hinted that Pirelli’s choice of hard tyres and the unusually high tyre pressures might have contributed to the Maranello-based outfit’s inability to extract the maximum performance from its SF-25.

“We knew this circuit would be more difficult than the previous one for us and all weekend long, we were unable to find the right set-up. We struggled to run the cars with the very high tyre pressures mandated here and we clearly took a step backwards.

“A couple of races ago we were on the podium and today we were fighting for P10. For sure, it’s been tough. Next week in Abu Dhabi we can expect to be back to the more normal pressures, so we can hope for a better weekend.”

Signing off with a word for the atmosphere after such a tough weekend, Vasseur claimed: “I can perfectly understand the frustration that everyone, the drivers, the mechanics, the engineers, is feeling tonight and we are sorry for our fans.

“But right from tomorrow morning, we will react as a team, we will be back at work trying to prepare as well as we can for Abu Dhabi,” said the Frenchman.