GP Singapore, Vasseur: “Sainz exceptional. Thanks to him and the Ferrari team”

“Carlos was exceptional in his management, thanks to him and the team.” Frederic Vasseur finally broke the ice, first victory for the Frenchman as team principal of Ferrari and immediately due thanks to Sainz and to the team for the joy they wanted to enjoy by getting on the podium. “The plan was to start strong with Leclerc, for this reason we used the soft tires and in this everything went well – the story of the race on Sky Sport F1 – then unfortunately there was the Safety Car and Charles was penalized by traffic in the pit lane. We had to do 40 laps with the hard tires and in this sense Carlos was very good at managing it.”

apprehension

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There was a lot of apprehension at the end when the Mercedes stopped under the Virtual Safety Car to try a final comeback with the medium tyres: “We knew they had that additional set of tires – he said – but the pace was good and despite not having much The margin proved to be sufficient to finish in front.” Worried about Leclerc’s engine? “There was a bit of concern for everyone, but in the end everything was under control.”

the decision

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One of the decisive moves of this race was Sainz’s decision to grant Norris the use of the mobile wing, risking a little (in a calculated way) to hinder the attempt of Russell, who was third and was furiously climbing with rubber fresh average: “Carlos was in control and managing the race and in the last 10 laps his was the best evaluation”.

growing

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One of the positive surprises was seeing Ferrari’s growth on a track like Singapore: “It’s true because we usually did well on high-speed tracks, while Singapore requires load and tire management, and I think we did an excellent job. Monza the news is that Carlos has also been doing well since free practice 1 and this has helped us build some good weekends because having two drivers with a competitive spirit helps a lot.” Vasseur had said that Ferrari had understood the SF-23 better at Zandvoort and this was confirmed: “Yes and we worked well, but let’s not get too excited now, we had a good race and it’s right to enjoy it, but from next week yes starts from scratch and we know that at Suzuka, a different track, the challenge will be completely new.”