Final 12 months Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc usually needed to concentrate on tyre administration, which was made harder by inconsistent and unpredictable behaviour even between units of the identical compound.
This 12 months’s SF-24 has proved to be rather more benign and predictable on lengthy runs, and that was a key to the spectacular 1-2 end for Sainz and Leclerc in Australia final weekend.
Vasseur says that tyre administration is the primary enchancment achieved by the group in comparison with 2023, relatively than outright pace.
“We made an enormous step ahead,” he stated. “Maybe on the tempo of 1 lap, it is true that we weren’t nowhere final 12 months on one-lap tempo.
“However the place we made an enormous step I believe it is extra on the consistency between the 2 compounds. Between one stint and the opposite one, the automotive is way simpler to drive.
“A lot simpler to learn additionally for our drivers, and by the way in which a lot simpler to develop. And it is in all probability the largest step that we did in comparison with final 12 months, to have one thing that we can’t simply handle, however at the least have a superb learn of the automotive fairly early into the weekend.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Vasseur additionally says the drivers at the moment are higher capable of take care of their tyres by way of a race stint.
“What’s true is that final 12 months, the primary difficulty was the truth that the automotive was very tough to drive into the race,” stated Vasseur. “Then you definately needed to do a step [in the pace], you have been doing errors, damaging the tyres. After which it is type of damaging spiral.
“This 12 months, it is a lot simpler I believe to learn for them, to know the place is the restrict, and to remain only a bit beneath. And when it’s a must to go to tyre administration, it is a lot, a lot simpler.
“They’re much extra below management than they have been final 12 months, once they have been a bit within the survival mode, and by this you’re killing the tyres fairly shortly.”