Frederic Vasseur makes bold claim about Ferrari catching Red Bull

Ferrari have already slipped to 61 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship after just two races.

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has urged the Maranello-based team to “continue to push”, with the Frenchman being confident that the Italians do have what it takes to catch Red Bull.

The start of Vasseur’s life at Ferrari certainly hasn’t been easy, with the Italians having endured a challenging start to the 2023 F1 season.

After an eventful opening two rounds of the season, Ferrari currently find themselves fourth in the Constructors’ Championship and with plenty of work to do, after already experiencing an issue with their power unit.

The season started poorly for Ferrari in Bahrain after Charles Leclerc retired from third due to an engine failure, with Carlos Sainz having been unable to capitalise on his team-mate’s retirement.

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Sainz claimed fourth at the Bahrain International Circuit after being overtaken by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who made light work of his fellow Spaniard.

Both Ferraris’ did finish in Saudi Arabia last weekend at least, although, Sainz and Leclerc had to settle for sixth and seventh.

Leclerc had shown good pace in qualifying at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit but was slapped with a 10-second time penalty, after being fitted with a third set of control electronics.

The Monegasque got through his two legal sets of control electronics at the season-opener, both of which failed.

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It was due to his second set failing that he suffered an engine failure; however, he has been assured that his power unit from Bahrain can be used again later in the year.

Ferrari were comfortably fourth in the pecking order in Saudi Arabia whilst they were arguably in a fight for second with Aston Martin in Bahrain, suggesting that at least for now, their fight is with the Silverstone-based team and Mercedes.

Red Bull are currently well out of reach for the Italians but Vasseur does think Ferrari can “close the gap” to the Austrians, but that they “have to be focused”.

“I think so. We have to continue to push,” Vasseur said, when asked if Ferrari can catch Red Bull.

“I think it’s not the right attitude to think about the gap, to think will we be able to close the gap and so on.

“We have to be focused on ourselves, that we know when we are weak, and we have to improve on this one.”

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After improving so much in 2022 it has certainly been disappointing to see Ferrari start 2023 so poorly, with Vasseur knowing the team need to “push like hell” to get back to the front.

“We know that we have to improve, but I think it’s the DNA of our sport,” added Vasseur.

“It’s not just due to the DNA of the current situation. We know that we have to work and we’ll continue, and be sure that from tomorrow morning, I’ll be in the office and push like hell.”