Vasseur feared Ferrari ‘cliff’ during Italian GP triumph

Frederic Vasseur has shared how he felt during the "strange" Italian Grand Prix, which the Scuderia won in front of its adoring fans.

The Ferrari team principal explained that he tried to "avoid thinking" about whether victory was on the cards at Monza through the race's ebbs and flows for fear Charles Leclerc's tyres would fall off the "cliff".

Despite the high temperatures at the Temple of Speed, race-winner Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who finished fourth, were able to stretch their Pirellis over just two stints, which resulted in a storied home victory.

When asked at what point he started to believe Ferrari could win, Vassuer detailed his thoughts throughout the race whilst explaining the one-stop strategy was the plan all along.

"I'm on the pit wall trying to avoid thinking if it's possible or not, that we are managing the gap, we are giving a target lap time to the drivers, and to not think too much 'is it possible or not'," the 56-year-old told media including RacingNews365.

"It's true that the race was quite strange, because we started for one stop, and then McLaren pushed a bit more than expected on the first stint.

"And then [Lando] Norris struggled before us, that he had to pit, we wanted to cover him and to stay in the same race as them, because we had the feeling at this stage that we had an advantage on the tyres."

Fear of Leclerc hitting the 'cliff'

Due to the heat, coupled with the McLaren-induced frenetic pace, much of the F1 field opted to transition away from the conventional one-stop tyre strategy onto a two-stopper.

This included Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who enjoyed the quickest car at Monza, and locked-out the front row of the grid en route to finishing third and second, respectively.

Whilst Vasseur - and Ferrari - already knew by the first round of pit stops it had the measure on the Woking team when it came to tyre management, it was not for a few more laps until it became evident the original strategy could prevail.

"The advantage was so good that after 10 laps with the hard [compound], it was clear for us that we could go until the end," Vasseur said before admitting he remained cautious of the potential performance drop-off.

"Then you never know, because you can have a cliff at one stage.

"But it was not the case, and it was a pretty-well managed by the two guys [Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz], and at the end of the day they were able to achieve the target lap time each lap and very consistently."