Yesterday at 08:20
Fred Vasseur has expressed his bitter disappointment at depriving
the team's fans of what he felt would have been a "magic" moment in
Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc was frustratingly
forced to settle for fourth at the end of the 53-lap race at Monza,
finishing just 4.273s behind the McLaren of Oscar Piastri in third.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton was sixth after starting from 10th. It was
Leclerc's seventh race for the Scuderia at their hallowed home, and
the third occasion he has now missed out on a top-three finish
after twice previously claiming a victory, alongside twice
finishing a runner-up. It meant Leclerc missed out on the now
customary spectacular scenes that accompany all podium ceremonies
at Monza, as thousands of fans flooded onto the start-finish
straight to witness the top-three celebration, spearheaded by Red
Bull's Max Verstappen. The Monégasque suffered early on in the race
as he failed to get his tyres in the right temperature window
before they then went on to overheat. Ultimately, he insisted that
a podium was not possible. As to whether he felt a podium was on
the cards but for the early tyre issues, speaking to the media,
including RacingNews365 , Vasseur said: "It's very difficult to
imagine what would have been the race without this. "It's true that
in the fight at the beginning, although he was able to overtake one
or two times, we were not in a good place, and we massively
overheated the tyres. "We then paid the price the next five, six
laps, when Russell was able to follow and the others [ahead] flew.
It is like it is. We have to think about what could have been
different on the opening lap." Although Leclerc performed admirably
in the second stint on the medium tyres, and finished as close as
he has done all season to a McLaren, it was not to be for him,
Ferrari, and the Tifosi. "Overall, I'm disappointed to not be able
to bring a podium to the Tifosi because when you see the pit lane,
and the start-finish line at the podium, it would have been magic,
and they would have deserved it," remarked the Frenchman. Trying to
find the positive, Vasseur added: "We were close to the McLaren,
probably the smallest gap of the season. "It's just that Max was
outstanding, from quali, from the first lap to the last lap, he was
there, he was flying, and much faster than us. "Overall, compared
to Mercedes and McLaren, we did our job, but not enough."
