Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur says the team “don’t regret” their strategy choices after initially fighting Mercedes for the win at the Australian Grand Prix.
A superb start from Charles Leclerc in fourth saw him take the lead from pole-sitter George Russell at the first corner. The pair exchanged the lead seven times in the opening nine laps as they adjusted to F1’s new style of racing, which places heavy emphasis on energy deployment modes.
The on-track battle was interrupted by a Virtual Safety Car on lap 13. Mercedes pitted both cars onto hard tyres while Ferrari kept Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton out. Although the Ferrari drivers had fresher hard tyres for the second half, neither looked likely to catch eventual race-winner Russell or second-placed Kimi Antonelli. Leclerc finished third and Hamilton fourth.
“The pace of Mercedes was better than us,” Vasseur said. “When they pitted they were three, four tenths faster than us, and they kept this pace, all the stint. Okay, we were able to fight a little bit more at the beginning, but perhaps pushing a bit more on the tyres. I have no regret on the strategy, no regret on the pace of today. We did a decent step compared to yesterday. Let’s be focused on China now.”
Some teams suffered tyre degradation during the race but not Mercedes, allowing Russell and Antonelli to do 45 laps on the hards without losing much pace. Vasseur said Ferrari were not comfortable that a one-stop would be possible when Mercedes pitted and that the issue was “pure pace, not the strategy.”
“We have to be realistic with this. They were eight tenths faster than us yesterday. We fought like hell in the beginning,” he added. “At this stage of the race, nobody was expecting to do one-stop. We targeted the optimum for us, and the optimum was to extend. Now we are also a bit surprised, but I think Mercedes were also [and] with the life of the tyres, they could have done 300 laps today.”
Sky Sports F1’s Bernie Collins noted Mercedes’ confidence in their double-stack pit call and questioned whether Ferrari could have reacted sooner during the second VSC, when Leclerc was at the safety car line as the VSC ended and Hamilton was further back. Jenson Button praised the early duel between Russell and Leclerc but said it was “a shame one of the Ferraris didn’t pit under the VSC” and that splitting the stops can be useful early in the season.
There was another Virtual Safety Car on lap 19, but the pit entry was closed because of Valtteri Bottas’ stricken Cadillac, so Ferrari could not make a cheaper stop. Leclerc said Ferrari had expected a more attritional race with further Safety Cars or VSCs that would provide more pitting opportunities.
“I don’t regret it. It was a wanted choice, a wanted and conscious choice,” Leclerc said. “Looking from FP1 to now, there’s been at every session a car that was stopped, at least one car. We knew that there were very high chances that this was not going to be the only VSC of the race, and so we thought that it was better for us to maybe wait for another one. That’s always a gamble, of course. We didn’t know that this would happen. The reality is we’ve had other VSCs after, and one which was particularly well placed, but unfortunately for this one for us the pit entry was closed and we couldn’t take it. So, we were a little bit unlucky on that side, but it was a conscious choice again and I don’t really regret it.”
Just six tenths of a second split Leclerc and Hamilton at the finish, with the seven-time world champion closing in on his Ferrari team-mate. Hamilton said he was proud of the team’s progress and felt he had the pace to overtake Leclerc with a few more laps.
“Of course, we are not as fast as Mercedes and we have work to do but we are right in the fight. It was a really fun race and it felt good for me. A couple more laps and I would have had Charles, so I had great pace. Lots of positives to take from today,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
Formula 1 now heads to Shanghai for the first Sprint weekend of the 2026 season at the Chinese Grand Prix.