Welcome at RacingNews365

Become part of the largest racing community in the United Kingdom. Create your free account now!

  • Share your thoughts and opinions about F1
  • Win fantastic prizes
  • Get access to our premium content
  • Take advantage of more exclusive benefits
Sign in

Vasseur jokes about bizarre requirement to compete with Red Bull

After Charles Leclerc was unable to match the pace of Red Bull in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur admits that the squad would have to resort to drastic measures to compete against the Milton Keynes squad's speed.

Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has joked that the team would have to make a bizarre change to their car in order to compete with Red Bull after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc started the race from pole position after a strong performance in Friday's qualifying session, but was overtaken for the lead by Max Verstappen just four laps into the event. Sergio Perez followed soon afterwards, with the Mexican going on to win the race from Verstappen while Leclerc had to settle for a distant third. While the Monegasque showed good pace in the latter stages of the event, Vasseur admits that there is still work for the Scuderia to do. "Even if the pace was there at the end, we are not able to fight with Verstappen," Vasseur told Sky Sports F1 . "But it is like this and we now focus on Miami. We have to learn from the race."

Can Ferrari match Red Bull's pace?

When asked about what Ferrari could do to address the ease with which the Red Bull cars were able to overtake Leclerc, Vasseur quipped: "Remove the wing, but it's not an option! "In Baku it's quite difficult to fight. First we have to understand exactly the story." Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz finished the race in fifth, with the result helping Ferrari to close the gap to third-placed Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship. Vasseur is not the only one of Red Bull's rivals to refer to the idea of removing the rear wing – George Russell also recently suggested that the Silver Arrows could make this change and still be unable to match the pace .

x
TECH How a botched 2023 upgrade is now destroying Red Bull's 2024 hopes