Ferrari boss doubts Red Bull possess magic bullet over distant chasing pack

Michelle Foster 02 Sep 2023 7:30 AM

Charles Leclerc lapping just ahead of his team-mate Carlos Sainz with both drivers running the medium Pirelli tyres.

Despite winning 13 from 13 this season, Fred Vasseur doesn’t believe there is one specific area where Red Bull are better than their rivals, they’re just doing an overall better job.

Unbeatable this season with the RB19, much has been said about Red Bull’s incredible straight-line speed, “super-duper” DRS, and “insane” rear-end.

However, the team’s technical director Pierre Wachéinsisted the car is average告诉Motorsport.com:“平均好everything, which is creating a good car. It’s not very good in one aspect.”

Red Bull have run rampant over Ferrari and the chasing pack

Vasseur agrees and has warned against becoming distracted by focusing on trying to match just one aspect of the RB19’s strengths.

“I’m not sure that they have an area where they are much better than someone else,” he said as per the official F1 website.

“我认为到处都是表演,在every single pillar of performance, the drivers, engine chassis, aero, suspension, strategy…

“I think it would be a mistake to say, ‘Okay, they are much better than us in this area, let’s be full push on this one’. We have to try to get the best from what we have in every single area and to do a small step everywhere.”

Red Bull’s rampant form has seen the team hold down the 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings all season while they also lead the Constructors’. As for Ferrari, they’re not even best of the rest in either with Carlos Sainz fifth on the Drivers’ log while the Scuderia are fourth in the teams’ standings.

Although in the latterthey trail Red Bull by 339 points, they’re only 54 behind Mercedes in the race to finish second but Vasseur says he’s not setting any targets.

“For sure, if you have a look on the numbers, it’s quite difficult to imagine we could be champions on the team and driver championships,” he conceded.

“But we need to keep the same mindset, to try to get the best on every single weekend, not to be focused on the championship. We have to improve the package, also to improve what we are doing on track, to try to get the best from the package that we have – it’s where we have to be focused.

“I don’t want to fix a target to say we have to do ‘this’ or ‘this’. As long as we have room for improvement, we have to be 100% focused on this. It’s clear that on every single topic, and every single pillar of the performance, we need to take a step forward.”

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But facing another season without a World title, potentially even without a race win, Vasseur is convinced Ferrari will get it right in time.

“It’s never that something is missing in a team when you are not winning,” he said. “Even when you are winning, it’s not that you have something special – I’m really convinced about this.

“It’s not that Red Bull have a magic bullet. Perhaps that Max is doing a mega job today, but also it’s coming from the fact that they are dominating and they are putting Max in a very good position to do a good job.

“I’m not sure that we have to change something. We have to improve everywhere, in every single area, in every single department. If two or three-tenths are missing, I’m much more convinced that it’s 10 times two or three-hundredths of a second per lap than something else.”