Vasseur explains how Hamilton and Leclerc saved Ferrari’s day at Sepang

Ferrari weren’t the only team to make a wrong call at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia by opting for slicks, but no one else did a better job of recovering and limiting the damage.

A race that looked to be heading for disaster after just a couple of laps ended with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc recovering for a decent outcome to finish third and fourth.

Yes, they were flattered by the late retirement of George Russell moving them both up a spot, while Isack Hadjar was hampered by a late battery issue and thus was unable to put up much of a defence.

But they did most of the work themselves with some superb driving in what was clearly a very competitive package – a performance that inevitably left Ferrari fans wondering what might have been had the right call been made at the start.

“I think 50 percent of the cars went for slicks, 50 for wets,” said Team Principal Fred Vasseur of the tyre choice. “You can't try, you just have a look on the tarmac in front of you in the pit lane, and for sure it was not the good one.

“It's not that I have no regrets – for sure, it's clear that it was better to start with inters, but we did the choice with information that we had.”

In essence the track dried more slowly than anyone expected, given past experience of Sepang.

“When you have to take your decision, you are trying to base the decision on good parameters,” said Vasseur. “But for sure, at the end of the day, we have to be lucid that it was not the right call, that it would have been much better for us to start with inters. But we were considering that it will dry very quickly, and so on. The pit stop [loss] was quite long also, 26 seconds.”

Leclerc’s race was changed when he had contact with Nico Hulkenberg at the start, and he pitted immediately for inters and a new front wing.

Several drivers who went for slicks also soon abandoned them – in some cases even before the first flying lap – but Hamilton opted to stay out, insisting that it was right to take a risk.

“We let him [have] the choice,” said Vasseur. “At the end, in this situation, they are in the car. When we are telling him that we are ready, it's just to tell him that he can pit if he thinks that it's the right call.

“He did a very good race, very smooth strategy. He was able to do a mega long stint with a very good tyre management with the soft.”

So what was the potential had the Ferraris made a different call and started on intermediates?

“I don't know, because the race is for sure different when you have to overtake 20 cars rather than run in front,” said Vasseur. “But I was not mega optimistic after Lap 1! You never know also because with dirty air, it's much more difficult, energy management and so on.

“But the pace was solid, and when Lewis was at the end of his stint with the soft, he was still doing a very good lap time.”

The race pace was certainly impressive, and ultimately that’s what propelled Hamilton and Leclerc up the order.

“We showed the same pace yesterday,” said Vasseur. “We were on the first row, but we were also on the first row in Baku. But the race pace was much better this weekend.

“It's also completely different conditions. The last two or three races we had zero [degradation]. This weekend the race was also difficult to manage for the drivers, because we did all the free practice with 60 degrees of track temp, and then you do the race with 30 degrees less, and it's another track.

“We were all a bit lost. I think when we restarted after the Safety Car, at one stage you had seven cars with soft, seven with medium, seven with hard. It's not very usual.”

So can Ferrari carry that strong form into next weekend?

“Let me have a beer tonight, and we discuss about Singapore tomorrow morning!” joked Vasseur. “It will be another one, for sure. But each one is different, and let's see.

“We were expecting to do a good performance this weekend. I think we did it. We are expecting to do also a good one next week – and I hope we'll do it.”