Set-up, not car concept, behind F1 deficit to Red Bull

The Italian squad had hoped to be able to lead the challenge against Red Bull in F1’s season opener last weekend. 

But despite pushing its rival hard in qualifying, worse tyre degradation in the race left it well adrift before Charles Leclerc suffered an engine problem while running third.

That left the door open for a hard-charging Fernando Alonso to swoop his Aston Martin past Carlos Sainz late on in the race and grab the final podium finish. 

With Mercedes, which finished just behind Sainz, already admitting it must change direction with its car philosophy if it is to get back to the front of F1, there is already some debate about whether or not Ferrari needs to consider the same thing. 

It has pursued an in-wash aero philosophy while the benefits of the downwash solution pioneered by Red Bull are clear to see – especially as Aston Martin’s copying of it has delivered such good results. 

When asked if Ferrari still had belief its concept could beat Red Bull, team principal Fred Vasseur said: “I’m completely convinced about this.  

“I never saw a car to match the pace of another one in quali and not to able to race. [So] then it’s a matter of set-up and some choices on the car. It’s not a matter of concept at all. So, we don’t have to go into this direction.” 

Vasseur thinks that Ferrari only needs to improve small details to get itself into a position to put Red Bull under pressure. 

“To summarise the situation, I would say on quali pace, we are there, we are matching Red Bull, at least in Bahrain. It was a positive point. 

“But now we have to be fully realistic. If we want to improve, we need to have a clear picture of the situation, and reliability is not at the level that we need.  

“If we want to win races, we need to have clean sheet on the weekend and not small details there and there.” 

While Red Bull’s dominance in Bahrain has prompted suggestions the championship battle is all but over, Vasseur insists nothing is lost yet. 

“It’s never good to start with a DNF, and I would have preferred to finish for sure, but I want to stay consistent in my position,” he said. 

“I told the team before the test in Bahrain two weeks ago that the championship won’t be over in Bahrain, and it doesn’t matter the result in any case. 

“It was true for the winter test, and it’s…