Vasseur outlines Ferrari Miami GP 'potential'

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur expects his outfit to perform "better" in the Miami Grand Prix this weekend than they did recently in China, where the Maranello-based outfit encountered difficulties with the sprint format.

This weekend at the Miami International Autodrome marks the second consecutive sprint event of the season and the first time Miami has hosted a sprint race.

It adds an element of unknown to the first race in North America of the 2024 campaign, although Vasseur outlines that unlike in Shanghai almost a fortnight ago, each side does have data from the past two seasons.

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc both struggled in China with the new sprint format which led to McLaren being Red Bull's closest competitor, although a repeat is not expected by Ferrari.

"Once again, we are dealing with the Sprint format that saw us struggle a bit in China," said Vasseur.

"But this is a very different type of circuit and one where we can count on the data we have acquired over the past two seasons.

"We expect to do better than in Shanghai and I believe we have the potential to do so, especially as it is so close behind the championship leader."

'Special weekend'

As is always the case even before the revised sprint format was introduced, a sprint weekend features just one practice session.

It results in one of the most intense practice sessions of the year, as each team has just 60 minutes to get its car into the correct window for sprint qualifying and the sprint race.

Ferrari are targeting a strong weekend to celebrate the start of their collaboration with HP, the Italians new title partner.

"Once again, it will be important to make the most of the only free practice session, especially to work on qualifying, where recently, we have struggled more than we should have done," conceded the Frenchman.

"This is a special weekend for the company and the team as it marks the debut of our new title partner, HP.

"We will all be doing our very best to get this collaboration off to the best possible start."