“It’s disappointing, we don’t have the expected performance yet”

Charles Leclerc will have long kept the third position of the Bahrain Grand Prix, but he ultimately only heated the place for Lando Norris. The battle between the two pilots lasted almost the entire race, with a last act more than hectic in the last quarter of the event.

After the intervention of the safety car, the Monegasque chose to put on hard tires and norris medium tires. Gums on white sides were much less efficient than those on yellow sides, cruelly lacking in grip on the sakhir layout. Thus, Norris managed to resume the advantage in the 53rd round, not without Leclerc taking out the claws.

“I tried everything until the end”he told Canal+. “Afterwards, it’s even more disappointing when you give absolutely everything and ends fourth but hey, it’s like that. This is where we are for the moment, I think that we could not have done much better today. It is disappointing because we do not yet have the expected performance.”

It has been since the start of the season that Ferrari has come back from his rivals. The new floor introduced this weekend and the third place of Leclerc in qualifying seemed to have raised the hopes at the Scuderia. However, for the Monegasque, the Italian team still remains the fourth force of the set.

“Yesterday, I think that we went a tour which was a little beyond the car … In any case where we are, because I managed to take a tour where I put everything in order”he added. “But when we look at everyone’s theoretical with the best sectors, we were not third … So here it is. This is where we are for the moment. I’m happy on one side that we have maximized the points, disappointed with the race because we lose the podium a few laps from the finish but hey, that’s like that.”

For Frédéric Vasseur, owner of Ferrari, there was better to seek than fourth place for Leclerc and a fifth place for Lewis Hamilton. Asked about his assessment of the Grand Prix, still at the microphone of Canal+, the Frenchman replied: “A little mixed, because I think there was a little room to do better today. We did not go on express tender, we went into mediums, we wanted to extend the first relay. We did it, it went pretty well.”

“We were really fast during the second relay because we were offbeat compared to the others, and then we had a safety because which came to cut our legs a little. And afterwards, we may have lacked aggressiveness [sur le choix des pneus au moment du Safety Car]. I think everyone had the same position, except Mercedes, but even Russell had found it super ‘daring’ to put a gender train at 24 rpm – but it worked. After, 4th and 5th, we score more points than Mercedes, more than Red Bull, it’s not a bad weekend in itself, but I think there was room to do better. “

“I am not Madame Irma, no one can know what would have happened [sans le Safety Car]but I think we had paid the price to pay on the first relay by making a longer relay than the others “he added. “And afterwards, we were always shifted with fresher tires until the end. So, yes, indeed, I think that we could at least have had Russell. Afterwards, we must not redo the shopping by saying what would have happened if …”

But as Leclerc speaks of lack of performance, what is missing in Ferrari to win? “We are missing four or five hundredths of the turn, but that’s like that”finally concluded Vasseur. “I think that today, McLaren is a little in advance. According to the sessions, depending on the temperatures, according to the tires, it is almost nothing – like the second relay – at five or six tenths, so we will say that in average since the start of the season, it’s two or three tenths, that’s clear. And after, we are in the match with Mercedes and Red Bull. Today is clear enough for everyone. “