"You always feel you could have done much better in terms of strategy," claims Fred Vasseur

On the back of a disappointing result at last Sunday's British Grand Prix, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur conceded that "you always feel you could have done much better in terms of strategy."

Having displayed an eye-catching performance across the practice sessions and qualifying, Ferrari endured an utterly disappointing afternoon at the British Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc was meant to start from P6 on the grid, but he elected to pit for slicks. However, his decision turned out to be the wrong one as the last segment of the Silverstone track was still damp.

On lap 11, the rain intensified so Hamilton pitted for a second set of Intermediates and Leclerc swapped back from Mediums to Inters as the Safety Car came out.

Conditions were extreme, with standing water and poor visibility. Cars were sliding around, struggling to stay on track. However, the track began to dry out quite rapidly, but it was still too early for slicks, with those who made an early change having off-track excursions.

Although Hamilton complained about the drivability of his car, the seven-time F1 champion looked very strong in the second half of the race.
The Briton completed several brilliant overtaking manoeuvres, passing George Russell, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll. However, he ran out of time to catch third placed Nico Hülkenberg.

As the race progressed, Leclerc came back into the points-scoring zone, albeit he made a mistake in the closing stages of the race, going off the track at Stowe, and finished down in P14 on a weekend when he could have fought for the victory given his race pace showed on Friday.

"That was a chaotic race for everyone from start to finish. I can imagine for the fans it was a good one. The conditions were changing so frequently that it was difficult to be on the right tyre at the right moment.

"The many Safety Cars also meant it was very difficult to predict what would come next. At the end of the race, you always feel you could have done much better in terms of strategy.

"Charles’ gamble to switch immediately to slicks was a brave call and, if things had gone differently, it could have been the right one," Vasseur continued.

"Clearly, McLaren were much faster than us, but today we scored more points than Mercedes and Red Bull, which is positive, as is the fact that we were competitive all the way up to the final run in Q3, that our pace has improved considerably compared to earlier in the year and now we need to carry that performance level into the second half of the season.

"We will study this weekend’s data to see why we struggled where we did. Now, the most important thing is that we make a further step forward in performance at the next race in Spa, that we put everything together to ensure we have a perfect weekend from start to finish.

"Finally, congratulations to Nico on his first podium. Given his undoubted talent, he deserves it," concluded the Frenchman.