Team boss Vasseur sees two huge problems in need of improvement at Ferrari after Bahrain. Ferrari’s first Formula 1 race in Bahrain on Sunday was not an easy one, with one of its two cars forced to retire due to mechanical failure.

Scuderia Ferrari director Fred Vasseur gave a quick assessment of the season’s opening race in Bahrain on Sunday, when Ferrari lost Charles Leclerc’s car due to an engine problem during the race.

After the Bahrain Grand Prix, Vasseur believes Ferrari will now have to focus on two areas in priority: tyre degradation and reliability after having several alerts on Leclerc’s car throughout the weekend until a fatal breakdown in the race that forced the Monegasque to retire while he was fighting for a podium.

“We’re still in the game”

“The advantage of the first Grand Prix is that we have a real picture of the situation on Sunday evening,” said Fred Vasseur on the French TV F1 show broadcast by Canal+.

“I would say there are some positives like our performance on a lap where I think we are there, we are not far from Red Bull, maybe a little bit behind, but we are in the game.”

“After that, there are two real issues: it’s the degradation today which is not good, we mustn’t deny it, compared to Red Bull, we are not there, so, we clearly need to improve the situation on that; and the reliability because beyond the engine problem we may have had during the race, we were a bit fragile all weekend.”

“That’s it, that’s the situation as it is, we have to face it, we have to get to work from tonight or tomorrow morning to try to correct what’s wrong and even try to improve what’s right, because we have a bit of a margin behind Red Bull.”

After the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari is fourth in the constructors’ championship with 12 points thanks to Carlos Sainz’ fourth place on Sunday.

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