Why Vasseur is remaining cautious over potential three-way title fight

Frederic Vasseur remains cautious over a Formula 1 title fight despite Red Bull being pushed outside of its 'comfort zone' in recent races.

Red Bull started 2024 strongly with Max Verstappen winning five of the first seven races heading into the Monaco Grand Prix, although McLaren and Vasseur's Ferrari are making gains into the Milton Keynes-based squad.

In Monte Carlo, Red Bull badly struggled over the bumps and with the camber of the street track, which coupled with the resurgence of McLaren and Ferrari has given hope of a possible three-way title fight in 2024. 

Whilst Vasseur believes Red Bull is starting to be pushed outside of its "comfort zone", he is still wary of making any bold predictions about the season.

"I don't want to draw any conclusions from this weekend [in Monaco], but if you look at the last two weekends, Max made more mistakes in Imola than in the last three seasons," Vasseur told media including RacingNews365. 

"As soon as you have to push more, if you have to stay in your comfort zone for the strategy, for everything, you don't have to make mistakes, and I think they were in that situation - but I'm not drawing any conclusions. 

"They will be back soon and be strong and I am not considering that all the races will be easy until the end.

"As soon as you are in a position where you have to pay more attention to detail, you have a kind of snowball effect - and this is part of the improvement of the last six or seven months."

Maximising the car

Both McLaren and Ferrari have brought sizeable upgrade packages to their 2024 cars thus far, with Red Bull only bringing minor parts and not a big selection of parts.

Besides Red Bull, since Vasseur took the helm at Maranello, Ferrari is the most successful team in F1 with three wins and has broken clear of 2023 rivals Mercedes in the pecking order.

Vasseur is looking to guide the Scuderia to its first Drivers' title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 or any title since the 2008 Constructors', but he does not believe the team needs any "motivation" to succeed.

"It is not a matter of motivation because the motivation has been there for a while, but it is the self-confidence for the team and drivers," he said.

"We have to continue like this, but the worst-case scenario will be to imagine that it is done and will be like this until the end [of the season] because I'm convinced we will have different tracks with different layouts, different characteristics fitting McLaren more or Red Bull. 

"It will be up and down until the end of the season and we have to score points when we are not at the top and be able to win when we are there."

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