Vasseur reveals Ferrari target ahead of Dutch GP

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has confirmed the Scuderia's target for the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Italian outfit struggled comparatively heading into the summer break, after its suite of upgrades failed to bring the desire performance gains. The update package also re-introduced bouncing, meaning it had to row back the developments.

However, a second bite at the cherry is planned for the final 10 rounds, with Vasseur confirming the team is "pushing like hell" to add upgrades quickly, and he feels the rounds to come will be more fruitful.

The 56-year-old also revealed Ferrari's target at the last grand prix prior to the summer shutdown will remain unchanged when F1 returns, at the Dutch Grand Prix - something it only partly achieved.

"To fix the bouncing is a step in performance," Vasseur told media including RacingNews365 when asked about Ferrari's planned upgrades to combat bouncing and if there would be any performance benefit.

"We are pushing like hell to bring something and we'll do it as soon as possible.

"We have also a good segment of tracks for us with Monza, Baku and Singapore - good tracks for the characteristics of the car.

"The most important is to score points and it was the target coming to Spa-Francorchamps to not lose points on McLaren and Red Bull, and it will be the same target in Zandvoort, because I'm convinced the next three or four races after these two [Hungary and Belgium] will be much better for us."

Ferrari went home from the Belgian Grand Prix with 23 points, three more than Red Bull, but five fewer than McLaren. 

To make matters worse for the Maranello-based team, Red Bull were hit by deciding to take Max Verstappen's power unit penalty in Ardennes Forest and McLaren is now 21 points clear in the constructors' championship.

Having started the season with the second-quickest car, Ferrari has been fourth-best over the past few rounds.

However, with the sharp end of the grid so closely matched, Vasseur remains optimistic.

The Frenchman highlighted how much gap to Red Bull has been reduced over the past season and just how incremental the gains need to be to significantly alter results.

"I think the Belgian Grand Prix it's a very good example for everybody, because Mercedes was really struggling on Friday - when we say struggling it's that they were probably at the back of the pack [of the top four teams] but for two-tenths [of a second per lap]," he explained.

"As soon as you fix something, or you do a small step, you can recover from P7 [and] P8 to P1 [and] P2, and Spa-Francorchamps is the best example.

"We are pushing on the fact that we have to pay attention to every single detail.

"It's not two years ago when you were doing P4 [and] P7 that you were finishing 60 seconds behind Max Verstappen

"For example, in Budapest, we finished the same position as one year ago, but we are not anymore at 65 seconds [behind], we are 20. 

"It means that now, we really need to keep everything under control, to not overreact, to pay attention to details, and [I'm] quite positive."