Vasseur: Ferrari have to improve everywhere

Speaking to reporters ahead of track action on Friday likely to bring Red Bull a 14th win in a row, 13 this season, Vasseur acknowledged that Ferrari lacked two or three-tenths of performance.

The most successful team of all time are fourth in the 2023 Formula 1 championship standings after 12 of 22 races, five points behind Aston Martin and 56 adrift of second-placed Mercedes who have 247.

Red Bull (503) are in a league of their own and championship leader Max Verstappen, chasing a record-equalling ninth successive win, has scored more points (314) alone than any other team.

"There is a huge gap with Mercedes in terms of points but also when I look at the first part of the season we missed too many opportunities," said Vasseur, who took over at Maranello in January and has drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

"We have to be much more opportunistic in the second part of the season. We need something a bit special if we want to catch up with Mercedes (in the championship) but the most important for me is to catch up with Mercedes in terms of pace," he explained.

Vasseur felt Ferrari, who have no major upgrades planned this weekend, were faster than the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell on average in qualifying but not race pace.

He emphasised, however, that there was no single area of weakness and did not believe something needed to be 'unlocked' on the car: "I'm more convinced that we have to improve everywhere than just on one area. We are speaking about tenths, not about seconds.

"We show on some occasions that we are able to fight with Red Bull at least in qualifying. It means the potential of the car is there and we have to understand why we are a bit less performance in the race and try to improve in these conditions. But I'm not sure it's coming from the concept of the car."

Ferrari were recruiting from rival teams confirmed Vasseur but warned it was an ongoing process and would take time -- until 2025 even -- for some of the new signings to be released from their existing contracts.

It was not a question of waiting for new arrivals before seeing any improvement said Vasseur, and trusts the team's current staff: "We need to improve but we can do a better job with what we have today and we have to be focused on trying to get the best from what we have.

"It's not that we will have three or five or 10 people that will join the team in the next 18 months and it will change completely the philosophy and the potential of the team. There is not a before and after," reckoned Vasseur.

Regarding this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix, Vasseur said in the Ferrari preview of Zandvoort: "We've recharged our batteries and are ready to go again.

"We can do so off the back of a strong showing in Belgium that ended with a well-deserved podium for Charles, which was down to excellent preparation and a race that was well executed in terms of strategy, pace, tyre management and pit stops.

"Even though we will as usual be focusing on our own efforts, we are well aware that, on a short lap like Zandvoort, the gaps between the teams behind Red Bull will be even closer than at Spa. Qualifying is particularly important at this track and the top ten on the grid will probably be fought out to the thousandth of a second.

"It will be a very busy weekend and we are aiming for a clean time on track to allow Charles and Carlos to get the maximum out of the Ferrari SF-23," explained the Scuderia team boss.