The Qatar GP, the penultimate round of the 1 F2024 World Championship, provided decisive indications, with Ferrari, thanks to the Charles Leclerc second place behind Red Bull of the new World Champion Max Verstappen, managed to recover precious points in the constructors' championship on both McLaren and the Milton Keynes team. Keeping the fight for the Constructors' Championship alive was the combination of results given on the track, which proved to be winning for Ferrari, or at least to keep them hoping: the respective third and tenth places of the MCL38s of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and the zero of Sergio Perez, in addition to the very important sixth position conquered by Carlos Sainz.
Vasseur's statements after the Qatar GP
At the end of a race full of unexpected events, the Team Principal of the Reds took stock of the situation: "In the case of Norris' penalty I don't think we should talk about interpretation, it's a very clear evaluation based on the regulation. As for the problem with Albon's mirror, with hindsight the VSC regime could have been imposed because a dangerous situation was effectively created", Vasseur's statements after the Qatar GP race.
“Our plan was not to push in the first 7-8 laps, to have a better situation in the final laps of the race. The Safety Car changed things a bit. Could we have put on the medium tyres? We thought about it, but we were not sure we would manage them all the way,” said the French engineer. “We are 21 points behind McLaren and everything is still up for grabs. It doesn’t just depend on us, but I think the context is very balanced. Verstappen’s Red Bull is back to going strong and in addition to McLaren we have to consider Mercedes. We will fight until the end.”
