Ferrari has improved the car to a point where he has the pace to compete with McLaren throughout the rest of 2025 season, but it cannot match McLaren’s conscent format, according to team principal Fred Vasser.
Rand Norris led McLaren 1-2 at the Hungarian League Runbris before the start of summer holidays, but Charles Leclerc secured Ferrari’s first pole position for the season, leading the two stints in the race. The loss of performance in the final stint ruined Leclair’s hopes, and he ended up finishing fourth, but also on the podium in Belgium, where Ferrari also made its way into the top three.
“Mega is hard to predict, and I also think that one day’s photos aren’t necessarily true the following weekend,” Vasuzer said. “But at least I would say that it is the last two (races) we are back at pace.
“We’re working on it consistently – not the last stint. I’m not completely stupid. We’re very consistent with the tires. We can manage the pace and if we go back to qualifying, it means we’ll fight them.
“I think the advantage they have today is that they are always there. That’s not important (conditions). Okay, we’ve got a little faster, but it’s a little bit, and when it’s a little more contradictory on the weekend, they’re performing in every condition.
“We need to be very consistent in all conditions. In free practice, in quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, different compounds, etc. I think we have a little more performance than we do today.”
Vasseur says it’s difficult to fully analyze the relative racial pace with McLaren in Budapest due to the track’s position, but he thinks there are indications that it’s a true match, only adding to the disappointment of the slow-performance drop-off.
“First of all, I think you have to keep dirty air in mind. You put the pole in place. It’s always a little easier to be in front than to be in the back,” he said. “I don’t know if the gap in the first stint is one-tenth or tenth of (Oscar) Piastri (Oscar), but I think there was a pace at this size.
“We were able to extend a bit when we were under pressure at the pit stop, which means we had a bit of a pace at this stage, one or two tenths of a tenth. I think this part of the race has worked very well for us.
“It’s leading this way in the first stint and if you have to pit on lap 12 because you don’t have any more tires, then it’s ‘Okay, I pushed too much’ but that wasn’t the case at all – we stopped to avoid an undercut, but we were able to do a few more laps at the same pace. ”