Fred Vasseur sets Ferrari 'critical' target which must be improved

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur believes it is "critical" that the Scuderia addresses a disparity in pace between qualifying and races.

Charles Leclerc scooped Ferrari's first grand prix podium of the season in Saudi Arabia, but was unable to fight with Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen for the win, coming home 8.1s behind winner Piastri. 

Leclerc had posted some competitive times during the race, but was out-qualified by the Mercedes of George Russell, and was 0.376s slower than Verstappen's pole lap. 

Whilst buoyed by the progress in races, Vasseur feels it is of the utmost importance to address the single-lap pace of the SF-25 machine.

"The most critical [area] for us is the difference between qualifying pace and race pace," Vasseur told media including RacingNews365.

"The second stint [of Leclerc in Saudi Arabia] was very strong and I think we were faster than Piastri and Verstappen for the last 35 or 40 laps, but we struggled much more in qualifying and so we have to put a focus on this.

"Because starting from P4, you are in the dirty air and you lose a couple of seconds in the first five laps, and then even if you do a good race, you can just be P3.

"We have to put our focus on this to be much more consistent all over the weekend, but [Saudi Arabia] was a positive because we made a step forward, at least the race pace was very strong, and there potential is there to do a better job."