Scuderia Ferrari is in the fight with McLaren to obtain the title of constructors' world champion. On the eve of the Qatar Grand Prix, Fred Vasseur, the boss of Scuderia Ferrari, does not want to enter a phase of calculation while a busy weekend awaits his teams and drivers with the sprint format and the race of Sunday.
In around ten days, Scuderia Ferrari can find its way back to a world title by being crowned among the constructors. Which would be a first since 2008. But to consider anything, Fred Vasseur is mobilizing his troops for the last two Grand Prix of the season so that everyone gives their best:
“It’s time to make one last effort over the next two weekends and our drivers, engineers and the entire team, both on track and in Maranello, are ready to give their best!”
Give everything before calculating
Before this Qatar Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari is 24 points behind McLaren in the Manufacturers' standings. But Fred Vasseur does not want to get lost in useless calculations. Above all, he wants to give his drivers the best possible car to get ahead of the McLarens on Saturday in the sprint race and then on Sunday in the race:
“There are 59 points to be taken, but now is not the time to start doing calculations. All we can do, it's executing everything perfectly so that Charles and Carlos can squeeze out every last drop of performance from SF-24″.
And this requires good preparation in advance. Because who says sprint weekend also means that there is only one free practice session. So no room for error. But Scuderia Ferrari has shown this season that it knows how to manage these different weekends:
“The Qatar GP is the last Sprint weekend of the year, which, as always, means that the work carried out by the grassroots teams takes on more importance than usualbecause there is only one free practice session”.
The Losail circuit, not the most suitable for Ferraris
On paper, everyone agrees that the circuit of this Qatar Grand Prix is not the most favorable to the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. What Fred Vasseur confirms on the Scuderia website:
“Besides the change in temperature, the tracks themselves couldn't be more different, as we go from a circuit with right-angle turns and long straights to one with many high-speed corners, which, on paper, does not work in our favor”.
However, the small gap between the four leading teams could give the Italian team hope that nothing is decided.
“We have been able to see, particularly during the last races, that Formula 1 as a whole is evolving at a very high levelOr the smallest detail often makes the differencedisrupting the status quo”.
We hope so. This will only add spectacle to this very beautiful 2024 season.
The Qatar GP F1 program
- Free Practice 1 – Friday November 29 – from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Sprint qualifying – Friday November 29 – from 6:30 p.m.
- Sprint race – Saturday November 30 – start at 3 p.m.
- Qualifications – Saturday November 30 – from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- Race – Sunday December 1st – start at 5 p.m.
