F1 News: Budget cap has delayed new Ferrari floor – Vasseur
(GMM) Frederic Vasseur (pictured) has explained why a new floor for Ferrari’s 2025 car is not already up and running at Suzuka.
After the Melbourne-Shanghai double-header, a flaw with the existing floor – making it overly sensitive to ride height, costing valuable downforce – was identified.
Initial reports suggested a fix has been made and would be in Japan, but the latest confirmed news is that it will in fact only debut next weekend in Bahrain.
“In the age of budget caps, you don’t bring major upgrades like front wings or underbodies to Suzuka,” team boss Vasseur explains.
“Not only would that be too expensive in terms of transport, but you would also have to build too many kits because you can easily lose parts in accidents at Suzuka.”
However, despite the shock post-Chinese GP double-disqualification and the fact that Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are only P9 and P10 in the standings, Vasseur insists there is no panic.
“We’re not as good as McLaren,” said the Frenchman. “But the gap isn’t as big as it appears from the outside.”
Championship leader Lando Norris is also not writing off the Maranello based team.
“Fred Vasseur said Ferrari can compete with us and should be at the front much more often,” the McLaren driver said at Suzuka.
“I mean, they beat us in the sprint in China, and they qualified ahead of us, so I guess that just shows how far ahead we are,” Norris said with obvious irony.
Some have even suggested Hamilton is so downbeat about the early situation at Ferrari that he may already be losing faith in the fabled team.
“Someone sent me something about whether I lose confidence in the team or not but that’s complete rubbish,” said the former Mercedes driver.
“I have absolutely 100 percent confidence in this team. There was a huge hype at the beginning of the year, but I don’t know if anyone expected us to win from the first race and win a championship in the first year. That was certainly not my expectation,” Hamilton, 40, added.
“I knew I was entering a new culture and a new team. That takes time.”
