Ferrari’s “small” Austin upgrade will be last of F1 season

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has revealed the small upgrade for the car at the upcoming Formula 1 United States Grand Prix will be the Scuderia’s last of the season.

The Maranello-based outfit remains in contention for the constructors’ championship despite the focus placed on the battle between Red Bull and McLaren – the gap standing at 75 points between the Woking team and Ferrari with seven rounds remaining.

In confirming an update package would be added to the car at the Circuit of the Americas, Vasseur revealed focus is then primarily on next year’s machinery.

“We all know that we already started the development of the next car, and we try to do our best to have small upgrades at the next one [race],” he said.

“I think it will be probably the last one for everybody; that will be true for us, but it will be true for the other teams.

“Now it’s so tight overall in the last four or five, six races, if you have a look on the grid, it may get tight and every single bit can make a difference.”

Ferrari’s Singapore Grand Prix hit trouble with a disappointing qualifying session in which Charles Leclerc struggled with tyre preparation and had a lap deleted in Q3, while Carlos Sainz crashed out.

The team then split strategies from ninth and 10th on the grid, with Sainz stopping early to get into clear air after losing positions on the opening lap, while Leclerc went later into the race to make his one and only stop.

Leclerc went on to finish fifth, hassling George Russell for fourth at the flag, while Sainz ended up seventh on his aged hard tyres.

Explaining why the decision to split approaches was made, Vasseur said: “To start [on] soft, you can make one position perhaps.

“But if you want to be aggressive, you will pit lap 12 or 15 like Lewis [Hamilton] did – you don’t have another choice.

“At least to start with medium, we had the opportunity to extend, the scenario of the race was a bit different and I think it was a good strategy.

“But the fact that we split the cars to do one early stop and then another one who extended was also the good call I think and it went pretty well due to the track position of the stint.”

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