Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has admitted that it’s “quite difficult” to catch Red Bull in the current era of Formula 1, with the budget cap being to blame.
Since 2021, all the teams have had a set amount they’re allowed to spend on developments, with that limit for 2023 being $135 million.
Ferrari have been throwing everything at their developments to try and catch Red Bull, but to no avail so far.
This is because Red Bull are also introducing upgrades, with it being a challenge for any team to catch the Austrians due to not being able to develop more than them.
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Before the budget cap, teams could spend whatever figure they wanted on upgrades, something which allowed for performance gaps to be shrunk.
That’s not as easy now, with Vasseur noting that making strides in the right direction is much more difficult now with the cap.
“Red Bull is also bringing upgrades and upgrades and upgrades,” Vasseur said, as reported by Crash.net.
“And I think that everybody is improving but the reality of the regulations and the cost gap is that we are improving much less than in the past.
“It means that when there is a gap, and a real gap, it’s quite difficult to catch up.
“One weekend to the others over the last four or five weekends it was a one time [Ferrari] ahead in quali, one time McLaren, one time Mercedes.
“But we are always behind Red Bull and at least in the race they have still a huge gap.”
As a result, Ferrari have opted to focus on themselves rather than Red Bull, with Vasseur admitting that the Italians are “pushing like hell”.
Ferrari sit fourth in the Constructors’ Championship and are 312 points behind Red Bull, highlighting just how much work they need to do to reach the top.
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“To catch up, it’s not that you are thinking about the Red Bull and to say well ‘what [do] we have to do?’” Vasseur said.
“You have to work on yourself. It means that we are developing, we are developing in every single direction, we are trying to improve aero, suspension and whatever we can do.
“We are pushing like hell to do a better job but if you have a look, and this is crucial, with the bouncing and so, it’s not when you are bringing upgrades that you are doing a huge step forward.”