Ferrari has improved his car to the point that it has the pace to occasionally fight with McLaren during the rest of the 2025 season, but cannot match the existing form of McLaren, according to team head Fred Vasseur.
Lando Norris led home a McLaren One-Twee in the Hungarian Grand Prix for the start of the summer holidays, but Charles Leclerc had secured Ferrari’s first pole position of the season and led the first two stints of the race. A loss of performance in the last Stint spoiled Leclerc’s hope and finally finished fourth, but after a stage in Belgium – where the Ferrari also qualified in the top three – Vasseur sees the outright performance close to McLaren.
“It is mega hard to predict, also because I think the image of one day is not necessarily true the next weekend,” Vasseur said. ‘But at least I would say the last two [races] That we are at the pace again.
“We are consistently on it – not the last stint; I am not completely stupid, boys – we are quite consistent on the tires, we are able to manage the pace and if we are eligible again, this means we will fight with them.
“I think the advantage that they have today is that they are always there – it doesn’t matter [the conditions]. Ok, with qualification we were a little faster, but it was marginal and they perform in every condition when we are a little more inconsistent at the weekend.
“We have to be very consistent in every condition. In free practice to have good preparation for the race, in Q1, Q2, Q3, with all the sets in the race, with the different connections, etc. I think they are a bit performance today than we are.”
Although Vasseur says it is difficult to fully analyze Ferrari’s relative racing pace against McLaren in Budapest because of the track position, he believes that there were signs that it was a real competition that only contributes to the disappointment of the late drop-off in performance.
“First of all, I think you should also keep the dirty air in mind. You do the pole position, it is always a bit easier to stay in front than to stand behind,” he said. “I don’t know if the gap in the first stint is two tenths with [Oscar] Piastri or it is a tenth, but in this size I think the pace was there.
“We were even able to extend a little when we were under pressure with the pit stop. It means that we had the pace at this stage to do one or two tenths more or less. I think this part of the race went very well for us, that it was really under control, that we had the feeling that we had not to push too much.
“That means it is even worse for frustration, because if you lead in the first Stint and you have to well in round 12 because you no longer have any tires, it is:” Ok, I have pushed too much. “But it was not the case at all – we just stopped to avoid the under murder, but we could have done a few more laps at the same pace.”
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