Ferrari struggled with overheating brakes for most of the Singapore Grand Prix and lost the ground to Mercedes in the Constructors Championship.
A year ago, Ferrari was beaten to the McLaren Constructors title in the final race of the season, but this year McLaren won the championship in Singapore, with Ferrari taking third place. The gap with Mercedes grew to 25 points after George Russell won, with Kimi Antonelli in fifth place, while Lewis Hamilton stepped into the house due to concerns about brakes that previously had also influenced Charles Leclerc.
“We were overheating from two or three laps, not from lap one,” Vasuzer said. “We had to lift and coast in the race, and it’s not easy to drive, even for them, as each lap needs to be adapted to the brake point at the end.
“Obviously, when I pushed a few laps with Lewis, I think I was decent at the pace. But you can’t run 95% of the race with your back foot.
“In Singapore, when you’re in the middle of the pack, you know that it’s important for the brakes. Certainly, the fact that you didn’t do FP2 didn’t help in the end, but it wasn’t expected at this point.
“In terms of safety, yes (it was fine) because I adjusted my pace. It’s not like Lewis is pushing like hell on the final lap. He was 30 seconds slow. In terms of safety, it was safe for the target.
Vasseur says that although there were short windows that looked like the Ferrari pace was comparable to the car on the front, there was little opportunity to assess the car’s potential without encountering braking issues.
“I think we did a few laps with them, and then you don’t know,” he said. “At very early in the race, I asked Charles to do the lift and coast. It’s not just about lift and coasting when we lose a little at the end of the straight. It’s also about finding the right brake point.
“We’ll probably lose your reference when we’re driving a car more than pure potential,” “a little bit more,” “a little bit more,” “a little bit more,” “a little bit more,” “a little bit more,” “at the front,” “we’ll need to change the brake balance.”… In the end, you’ll probably lose your reference when you’re driving a car more than pure potential. ”
