Ferrari 'on another planet' in F1 testing

Ferrari is on "another planet" with its tyre degradation over race simulations, an upbeat Frederic Vasseur has claimed.

One of the big weaknesses of the 2023 car was high tyre wear which meant Ferrari was capable of challenging for pole positions over a single lap, but it could not translate this to the race.

On Thursday, Carlos Sainz topped the day with his Soft tyre effort, but both he and team-mate Charles Leclerc have reported good feedback from the SF-24 machine, with Sainz consistently in the 1:38 region during a 17-lap stint, split into two on the final day.

The team believes it is still behind Red Bull, but Ferrari will go into the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix as the second-best team based on the evidence of testing - having made steps towards fixing its big 2023 problem.

Ferrari's leaps forward

"With the consistency and the race pace, the degradation that we had yesterday for the longest stint was on another planet compared to last year," Vasseur told F1TV.

"At least on this we've made a step, but now it is not just a matter of being consistent, but fast.

"We know that we always have to pay attention to the conclusions after the test.

"If you take the classifications from last year, Day 2 or Day 3, I think it has nothing to do with the classification of the Saturday of the race [weekend].

"The most important thing is to trust the guys because their feedback was positive and we have seen a lot of development for sure.

"I think Red Bull is still ahead, but let's continue to push and see where we will be next week."