“We will have to speak and fix it,” Fred Vasseur breaks silence on Charles Leclerc’s radio mix-up in Jeddah

Fred Vasseur has talked about the miscommunication that took place between Charles Leclerc and his race engineer in Jeddah.

“We will have to speak and fix it,” Fred Vasseur breaks silence on Charles Leclerc’s radio mix-up in Jeddah

Charles Leclerc (Credits: Planet F1)

Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari F1 Team Principal, has talked about his team’s radio blunder at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. During the safety car incident of the race, Charles Leclerc‘s radio engineer committed a blunder, which cost the Monegasque driver a place against Lewis Hamilton. The incident occurred on lap 18, and from that point onward, the race proved to be an uphill task for Leclerc.

Under the safety car conditions, Lewis Hamilton dived into the pits and came out behind Leclerc, however, despite that, the Brit managed to overtake Leclerc as there was a moment of miscommunication between the Ferrari driver and his race engineer. The whole communication blunder went something like this.

YouTube video

Charles Leclerc was told, “Try to push from Safety Car line one. Hamilton just pitted.” Leclerc replied: “Xavi, you need to tell me that before!” The incident brought a lot of damage to Ferrari in terms of points. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc could only manage a disappointing P6 and P7 finish at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

FS Video

Fred Vasseur, after the race, was asked to dwell on the incident, and asserted that it was bad decison making from the team.

Yes, it was not a good call, it is like it is. It’s not the main issue and I think it would be a mistake from our side to focus on [it]. I don’t want to say its details. It was a miscommunication, and we will have to speak, to fix it. It’s not the main issue at all over the weekend.

Fred Vasseur said via Crash.net.

Fred Vasseur’s take on Ferrari’s lack of pace in Jeddah

While the Maranello-based Ferrari F1 team faced operational issues during the race in Jeddah, it was not the main problem. The Italian outfit was surprisingly slow compared to its rivals and had the fourth-fastest car on the track. The team was behind Mercedes, Aston Martin, and of course, the reigning World Champions, Red Bull. Fred Vasseur sees this as a much bigger issue for Ferrari.

Fred Vasseur
Fred Vasseur
The most difficult thing in my business after a race like this is to understand what is going well and what is not. We have positive points, but we need a step on reliability. Even the first stint of the race we can be happy with, but the race was based on the last stint, and clearly, we did not have the pace.
Fred Vasseur said.

Looking at the comments of the Ferrari boss, it is safe to say that the team is worried about its SF-23’s lack of pace and performance.The 2023 F1 campaign is two races down, and Ferrari has already fallen far behind the Championship race.

However, there are still 21 races remaining on the calendar for Leclerc and Co. Taking everything under consideration, would the Ferrari F1 team be able to produce significant improvement in the upcoming races?

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