Vasseur hints at 'hidden' Ferrari upgrades to avoid F1 'mess'

Frederic Vasseur has hinted at 'internal' Ferrari upgrades that allowed it to avoid the "mess" some F1 teams are experiencing with news parts.

Heading into the United States Grand Prix weekend, from which it emerged with a one-two finish through Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Ferrari was one of only two teams not to bring a performance upgrade to Austin. 

Major rivals Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes all brought parts, but teams have generally been reluctant to bring upgrades for fear of throwing the car out of its prime operating window and having to re-learn how to optimise its set-up with the new design. 

Mercedes struggled badly with its upgrades as both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton suffered high-speed spins at Turn 19, although Russell was forced to revert to the old-spec after damaging his parts beyond repair. 

When asked if the so-called 'stable platform' Ferrari could build on throughout the sprint weekend at Austin was behind its strong performance, Vasseur hinted that internal upgrades being delivered, ones that do not have to be declared.

"When you speak about upgrades, it is what we are declaring, that it is only aero," he told media including RacingNews365. 

"But performance is not only in the external shape of the car.

"We are at the point in development now that when you are bringing something, we are speaking about tenths of a second [in pace], and you have much more to do with the set-up. 

"It is true when the team is bringing something that perhaps sometimes it is a step forward in terms of performance, but it is also creating a bit of a mess in the set-up. 

"It is not always a step forward.

"But it is not that because we are not declaring something, that we are not bringing something. 

"We have to declare the upgrades on the external shape, but it is not that because we are not declaring something, that we are not bringing something."