Ferrari happy to fly under the Formula One radar in team title fight, says Fred Vasseur
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Ferrari's pole-sitting Spanish driver Carlos Sainz posing for a picture after the qualifying session of the Formula One Mexico City Grand Prix at the Hermanos Rodriguez racetrack in Mexico City on Oct 26.
PHOTO: AFP
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MEXICO CITY – Ferrari are in a perfect situation flying under the radar in the battle for the Formula One constructors’ title, team principal Fred Vasseur said, after Carlos Sainz took pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Oct 26.
Following a one-two finish last weekend in Texas, the Italian team trail defending champions Red Bull by only eight points and are 48 points behind leaders McLaren.
With Sainz starting ahead of Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris, and with Charles Leclerc in fourth, Ferrari are the only title contenders with both cars inside the top 10 for the Oct 27 race, which took place after press time.
However, according to Vasseur, they have driven into contention almost unnoticed.
“We have the advantage to be under the radar,” Vasseur told Sky Sports.
“The discussion is more about the fight between Lando and Max, between (McLaren boss) Zak (Brown) and (Red Bull boss) Christian (Horner), between Mercedes and I don’t know who – for me, it’s perfect.”
Sainz, who will leave Ferrari for Williams at the end of the season and is out of the title reckoning, lapped with a best time of 1min 15.946sec.
The Spaniard, who claimed his sixth career pole position, said he knew how important it was for Ferrari’s hopes to keep scoring maximum points.
“It’s our No. 1 priority. First of all, to bring both cars home, but especially if you win the race, those extra seven, eight points that you get when you win are important for the team in the constructors’ (title race),” he said.
“I’ll be just looking forward to keep that P1 into Turn 1, and from there, hopefully our race pace should be good enough to win it.”
Meanwhile, both Verstappen and Norris declared themselves satisfied with their starting positions – and both know they will be on their own as their Red Bull and McLaren teams’ second drivers Sergio Perez (18th) and Oscar Piastri (17th) failed to qualify in the top half of the grid.
“I wasn’t sure it would be possible to be on the front row,” said three-time champion Verstappen, whose first fastest lap in Q3 was deleted because he exceeded track limits.
“So, to do it makes me very happy. I felt a lot of pressure as I barely did any laps on Friday and we were doing a lot of catch-up. I needed to have a good qualifying.
“This is probably one of the hardest tracks to get right – low downforce, easy to lock up and to slide... it’s one of the trickiest ones on the calendar.”
Norris, who was 57 points behind Verstappen with five races remaining, was penalised five seconds for running off track when passing him during the Oct 20 United States Grand Prix and has made it clear he was working on finding a way to beat him to take the title.
“Honestly, I’m pretty happy with third,” he said. “I feel like I got to the limit of the car quite quickly, but I struggled to get more from it in the final two laps...
“No one has done long runs on the tyres we will be on tomorrow, so there are question marks for us all.”
Mercedes’ George Russell and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton will start fifth and sixth respectively. Kevin Magnussen was seventh for Haas, ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’ Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg in the second Haas. REUTERS, AFP
