Vasseur: We leave Baku with a result below expectations

For the fourth time in a row, Leclerc took pole at Baku but failed to transform that into a win as McLaren's Oscar Piastri outraced him to the chequered flag last Sunday.

While Leclerc led comfortably from the start, the power shifted after the pit stops, which meant Piastri passed him and kept him at bay after a titanic fight that lasted till the end of the race, as the Monegasque started to struggle with his tyres.

"The first part of the race went very well for Charles, and his pace was mega," Vasseur commented in Ferrari's race report. "Then we need to analyze the laps immediately after his pit stop as the pace proved to be too slow, and in the end he had no tyres left anyway.

"Probably we were a bit too conservative at the start of the second stint, but having to drive in dirty air was difficult for Charles, and the result was [that] it damaged the tyres. We will review everything carefully," he vowed.

But facing the media after the race, Vasseur offered some more insight; he added: "I think we probably missed out the last lap before the pit stop, the first lap after the pit stop and we missed the race at this stage.

"Now if we redid the race, do we have to pit one lap before? It is what it is; we have to learn from this and do a better job next time. The lack of long stint before the weekend probably didn’t help Charles at this stage," he said.

"Now it’s behind us; it’s a P2. P2 overall is a good result for Charles for the championship, and for sure we have a bit of frustration because we had the space and pace to win this weekend."

On the penultimate lap of the race, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez crashed, bringing out the virtual safety car, which was how the race ended with Ferrari scoring points with one car.

Vasseur commented on the crash; he said: "As for the incident with Carlos and Checo (Perez), they were side by side at the start of the straight leading to turn 3, and they both wanted to keep in Charles’ slipstream.

"It seems to me that Checo had plenty of space on his left hand side and did not move at all, while Carlos had no room on his right hand side.

"We leave Baku with a result below expectations, but it was good to see that as in Monza we were fighting with McLaren and we were competitive.

"We need to keep the focus and continue to fight, as there are many more races to go," the Frenchman concluded.

While McLaren took the lead of the 2024 Formula 1 constructors' championship, Ferrari remain in third, 31 points behind Red Bull, who are now second and are in turn 20 points behind McLaren.