Vasseur Identifies Straight-Line Weakness After Japan

Team Principal Fred Vasseur reviewed Ferrari’s showing at the Japanese Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc produced the squad’s third straight podium, recovering to finish third.

Leclerc overcame an early stop and a mid-race Safety Car interruption to fight back into the top three, then held off Mercedes’ George Russell in the closing stages. Lewis Hamilton ended up sixth, losing place to Lando Norris and calling his weekend “pretty terrible.”

Vasseur described the weekend as broadly positive, praising Leclerc’s performance and noting how the Safety Car complicated tactical plans. He was candid about a clear shortcoming: Ferrari’s straight-line speed. The boss said the team suffered a deficit on the straights and that this remains an area that needs addressing.

On the intra-team duel, Vasseur was happy with how the two Ferraris handled their battle. There was brief contact between the teammates with Leclerc emerging ahead, but Vasseur stressed the priority is getting both cars to the finish and welcomed the competitive but respectful racing between them.

With a break before the Miami round, Ferrari will use the pause to dig into data from the first three events. Vasseur framed this period as the start of the car’s homologation process, saying there are many areas to refine. He emphasised that improvements must come across the whole package rather than from any single upgrade.

"Now we have good data after three races to understand where the car is competitive and where it isn’t," he explained, adding that performance gains will require incremental steps in multiple domains — and that this challenge applies to all teams.

Scuderia Ferrari leaves Suzuka encouraged by Leclerc’s podium but clear-eyed about the work ahead to close the gap to rivals like Mercedes. The team is preparing upgrades and plans to target gains across aerodynamics, power delivery and overall balance as the season progresses.