Vasseur takes it ironically: “Even when it slows down, Mercedes is faster than us”

Vasseur jokes about lost pole When Max Verstappen crashed into the barriers in the final moments of Q3 of the Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari were virtually occupying the front row, as Charles Leclerc was first, with Lewis Hamilton second. All the drivers, seeing the yellow flag, aborted their lap, except George Russell – who had a large advantage in the second sector – and who slowed down just enough to still take pole position with 236 thousandths of an advantage over Leclerc.
What happened was noticed by the Commissioners, who however decided not to proceed after consulting the telemetry data. Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, wanted to tone down any controversy, to allow the team to focus on tomorrow’s race and the excellent starting positions.
And, as in his style, he joked to the F1TV microphones. The interviewers asked him for a comment, starting from the updates to the Ferrari power unit: “It seems that you still lack top speed compared to the Mercedes…”. And the French manager joked with a dig about the lost pole: “Again? Hahaha! Even when they slow down, they are faster than us!”, he underlined, generating laughter from those present. Ferrari, the glass is half full In his role, Vasseur has the task of keeping the team’s concentration high, without getting lost in superfluous controversies: “Let’s take the positive side, we are second and third and fighting with Mercedes in qualifying. Tomorrow we want to have a good pace. We still have 15 races to go and what matters most is the performance. Due to the accident we can talk at length about how reasonable it was or was not not to display the double yellow flag, but we have to trust this control system.” Vasseur is determined to get the most out of the race: “Every day is a different story. It doesn’t mean that, just because we managed the tires well two weeks ago, it will work the same way tomorrow. We need to have clean air, pay attention to the car and the tyres, without concentrating on the lot or anything else. We did it in the last race and we will try to do it tomorrow too.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-28 04:00:00