Vasseur rejects McLaren theory as Ferrari plan explained

Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has denied claims that McLaren is out-developing the Scuderia, and explained why its progress seems slower. 

Ferrari started 2024 as the closest challenger to Red Bull but after McLaren introduced an upgrade package in Miami, the MCL38 has passed the SF-24 as nearest rival to the RB20 across a wide range of tracks. 

Lando Norris has finished second to Max Verstappen four times in 11 races, including in three of the last four, and defeated the Red Bull in Miami as Ferrari has slipped back in the pecking order, with Mercedes also looking increasingly strong.

Although it scored a 1-3 in Monaco, Ferrari suffered a double DNF in Canada before labouring to a five-six in Spain, with Charles Leclerc detailing the car was suffering in high-speed corners. 

When the progress of McLaren was put to Vasseur, he rejected the idea that it was out-developing Ferrari.

"McLaren one year ago [at Silverstone], finished 25 seconds ahead of us," Vasseur told media including RacingNews365. 

"I am not sure that their rate of development is much bigger than what we are doing. 

"We are satisfied with the numbers that we are getting [from upgrades], and everybody is improving which does not mean that if you bring something, you will make a jump forwards, and if you don't, you will go backwards.

Convergence

Convergence of the field in the third season of the ground effects rules is an increasing trend, with the huge upgrade packages previously brought becoming smaller and more refined as teams pinpoint their car concepts. 

Vasseur also noted this and how it takes time to extract the maximum from an upgrade package when it is first delivered to the car.

"Everybody is bringing parts now every two or three events, and you get the list of what we are bringing but that is just the aerodynamics - don't forget that we are not just developing the aero, and that it sometimes takes one or two events to get the best out of the new package that we have," he said.

"We have a convergence of performance and it was quite often the case for everybody last year that if you look at the performance when every single team was bringing something, it was sometimes the race after that the performance was there. 

"It will be like this until the end because we have the same performance and now all the packages are much smaller than [were being brought two years ago]."