From the first race of the season, Ferrari has solidified their position as the second-best team in the pecking order. However, the Italian team slipped up during the Chinese GP weekend. After being Red Bull’s closest competitor so far, they let McLaren take over those duties in Shanghai. The Woking outfit was comfortably ahead during the qualifying and the race. Now, Frederic Vasseur has confessed it was because of their negligence and unpreparedness for the weekend.
“First, as a team, we have to get the best of what we have, and we didn’t do the job this weekend on this,” said Vasseur as quoted by Autosport. However, Vasseur does not believe the gap was massive during the race. He also believes such margins will exist throughout the season because of various factors.
“I think it’s a matter of a tenth or half a tenth. It can be a bit track-related, tarmac-related,” he added. Still, one-tenth of a second can be the difference between Q3 and Q2 which has a massive impact on the race. Vasseur explained it as starting a race in a faster car but in dirty air, so the tires suffer a lot during the first 10 laps. That makes a massive difference toward the last stint of the race.
Secondly, the circus was back in China after 5 long years and it was with a Sprint weekend. The teams did the best they could with all the limited information they could gather from the solitary practice session.
These circumstances always play a role. This is why the Frenchman believes McLaren pipped the Italian team in Shanghai. However, was there a real gap between the two teams?
The difference between McLaren and Ferrari in the Chinese GP
The Woking outfit was ahead of Ferrari but not throughout the whole weekend. Moreover, it was only the MCL38 of Lando Norris that was ahead of the Italian team’s drivers. For the Sprint, the Brit qualified on pole position but following the first lap incident, he finished behind the two Ferraris. In the Grand Prix qualifying session, both McLaren men were ahead.
However, the difference was 0.132 seconds, between the fastest McLaren and slowest Ferrari in Q3. Marginal at best! In the race, both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished in P4 and P5, two places ahead of their qualifying positions, respectively. Only Norris beat them to take P2, as Oscar Piastri suffered damage.
However, the marginal difference was enough to make the Maranello outfit react. According to rumors, the SF-24s will feature new parts in Miami, especially the floor.
In 2023, Ferrari could only shine in qualifying but was beaten on race pace by Mercedes. So, they would be looking to do better compared to China and their performance in the 2023 edition. It will be interesting to see what kind of performance the floor upgrades will unlock in Miami.
