Ferrari respond to surprising McLaren F1 claim

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has played down the suggestion the Italian squad will be a consistent front-runner in the second half of the campaign.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella recently claimed Ferrari will be a “contender for victories for the remainder of the season”.

His comment came after Charles Leclerc led for much of the Hungarian Grand Prix after sealing pole position.

However, his pace dropped off in the final stages of the race, leaving him to take the chequered flag in fourth.

Ferrari is yet to win a grand prix this year and is the only team inside the top four in the standings waiting to do so.

While it has been far from the season Ferrari hoped for, Vasseur acknowledged his squad has appeared to have taken a step forward over the last handful of events.

“It’s mega difficult to predict also because the picture of one day is not necessarily true the next weekend,” Vasseur told media including RacingNews365 when quizzed over Stella's suggestion.

“But at least I would say that the last two that we are back into the pace in Spa and [Hungary].

“We are back into the pace. We are quite consistent on the tyres, we are able to manage the pace, and if we are back in quali, it means that we will fight with them.”

Vasseur suggested Ferrari is being held back by not being able to be consistent with its pace across a grand prix weekend.

“I think that the advantage that they had [in Hungary] is that they are always there,” Vasseur said.

“It doesn’t matter, OK, in quali, we were a bit better, but it was marginal.

“They are performing in every single condition, when we are a bit more inconsistent during the weekend.

“And if you want to win, we need to be very consistent in every single condition in free practice to have a good preparation for the race in Q1, Q2, Q3, with all the sets in the race, with the different compounds and so on.

“I think it’s clear they are a bit more performant than us.”