Vasseur: We are back on the right track

Ferrari's result in the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix was nothing to write home about, Leclerc in fourth and Carlos Sainz in sixth, but at least the former was not lapped as was the case one race earlier at Silverstone.

After struggling with an upgrade package they brought for the Spanish Grand Prix which caused the SF-24 to become more bouncy, Ferrari brought a new floor to the Hungarian GP, which combined with slow nature of the Hungaroring seemed to calm the Red Car down a bit.

Speaking to the media in Budapest last Sunday, including GrandPrix247, Vasseur was asked of the new floor did the trick, he said: "There's always a balance between the performance or let's say downforce and the performance but downforce and bouncing. I think it's true for everybody.

"I spoke with some of my colleagues and I think we are all on the same boat. Really on the edge between the two and it will be a track-related and set-up-related. Now it's true that Budapest is probably not the most severe track for the bouncing but at least it was a bit on the edge," he explained.

Later in Ferrari's post race report, Vasseur added: "We had a good fight with Mercedes and Red Bull. We got the most out of our package that we could this weekend.

"We have made a good step in terms of the car’s driveability but now we need to come up with a step forward in performance to close the gap of two to three tenths to McLaren.

With Red Bull struggling in Hungary, Max Verstappen dropping to fifth and Sergio Perez out of contention after another disastrous qualifying, Ferrari managed to sneak a fourth place for Leclerc.

Commenting on the Monegasque's race, Vasseur said: "Charles got a good start moving up a couple of places early on. We had a very strong pace in the middle stint on the Hard tyre while it was a bit more difficult at the end on the Medium.

"With Charles we tried to undercut Verstappen but Hamilton pitted at the same time so we were blocked behind him," he pointed out.

As for Sainz the Frenchman said: "Carlos didn’t have the best of starts and then he had quite a solitary race bringing home the best result in the circumstances.

"If we look at the points scored, we were second today behind McLaren. Of course we cannot be happy just with this, but I think we are back on the right track," Vasseur concluded.

Despite being the team who scored the second most behind McLaren in Hungary, Ferrari have now dropped to third in the 2024 Formula 1 Constructors' Championship, 16 points behind McLaren who in turn are 51 points behind leaders Red Bull Racing.