‘I don’t want to blame anyone’ – Vasseur says Ferrari need to put together ‘consistent weekends’ after Singapore recovery

After a bleak qualifying session for Ferrari, Fred Vasseur was left satisfied by his drivers’ resurgence to bring home a reasonable points haul around the streets of Singapore.

Despite looking like the strongest team heading into qualifying, the Saturday session was disappointing for the Italian outfit, after Carlos Sainz suffered a massive crash that had a knock-on effect on his team mate Charles Leclerc.

READ MORE: Leclerc left with ‘mixed feelings’ after fightback to P5 in Singapore as he takes blame for qualifying mistake

Starting from P9 and P10 on the grid, the two improved to ultimately cross the line in P5 and P7, with Leclerc taking the role of lead Ferrari.

The result has kept them firmly in the top three as they find themselves with a 34-point deficit to Red Bull as McLaren continued to extend their lead and solidify their status as the team to beat.

Speaking after the race, Team Principal Vasseur said: “The big emotion is it is always good to finish the weekend on a positive, and if you weigh up the race, it’s sure you increase a little bit the frustration from Saturday but I’d rather have the frustration from a poor qualifying and a good race than a poor race, so it is okay it was like this.

“I think it’s good to finish and attack the three or four-week break with a positive tone. I don’t know if Lando [Norris] was pushing the last 20 laps but we were on the same pace, and that’s a positive for the weekend.

READ MORE: ‘We were flying the whole race’ – Norris hails ‘amazing’ Singapore win despite ‘too many close calls’

“Our target was not to match Lando today, it was to come back and score points and on this we did a good recovery.”

With six races to go, including three Sprints, there are plenty of opportunities for Ferrari to progress up the standings – but Vasseur emphasised that this will only happen if they amend their Saturday strategy and maximise their qualifying performances.

“Even in Q2 we were P2, or something like this,” he added. “But in Q3 we had one lap due to the red flag. But at the other end, you are chasing the last kph, you are all within one tenth and you do a mistake in Turn 1 and it is like it is.

MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: How Ferrari’s Singapore weekend unravelled while Red Bull recovered from a shocking start

“I don’t want to blame anything or anyone, we need to be more focused to do a more consistent weekend. And I think it is true for everybody, as soon as you do a small mistake even in practice now, it is quite difficult to recover.

“The result of the Sunday is a good one, good race, we had strong pace with Charles and Carlos was a bit blocked but the strategy and tyre management was in line with the last couple of events and we can be pleased with this. We have a couple of weeks to prepare for the last six and be ready.”

With three weeks before the paddock heads to Austin, a track where Ferrari have never won, Vasseur hinted that they will work on some minor upgrades to hopefully enhance their performance.

WATCH: Sainz slides into the barriers to bring out red flags during qualifying in Singapore

“We all know we have already started the development of next year’s car,” the Frenchman explained. “We will try to have small upgrades on the next event, I think this will probably be the last one for everybody, for all the teams.

“It is going to be tight, if you look at the grid it is so tight between the top four teams and we see if it can make a difference.”