Frédéric Vasseur: “The best way to thank the tifosi”

When did you start to believe that this success was possible?

The race was quite strange because we went for a pit stop and the drivers McLaren pushed a little more than expected in the first stint. We wanted to cover them because we felt at that stage of the race that we had a tyre advantage. After 10 laps on the Hard tyres, it became clear that we could go all the way. Which would not have been the case if both drivers had not handled the situation so well by being able to hit the target time every lap, and very consistently.

How important is this victory?

For Ferrari and for Charles, winning in Monaco, winning in Monza, it's with Imola the two or three victories that we want to win the most in the season. On an emotional level, it's something huge as the support from the tifosi has been mega. From Monday at Maranello, we had hundreds of people in front of the entrance and the best way to repay them was to win. It was the best way to thank them.

Without the improvements made to the SF24, particularly in terms of the flat bottom, would victory have been possible?

Honestly, it’s quite difficult to understand the impact of the upgrades on a circuit like Monza that is so different. That being said, if you look at qualifying with six or seven cars within a tenth, every little detail makes a difference. Every update is crucial, but today the pace was more about tyre management than anything else.

Did we witness Charles' best race in Formula 1 ?

Today he had to fight, he had to manage the tyres… It was harder to win here than in Monaco from pole. When you are not the fastest and you still win, it is more rewarding.

Three street circuits to come, three “Sprint” weekends, rain still possible in Austin, a lot of things that can happen in the coming weeks. How do you see the last third of the season?

It would be a huge mistake to draw conclusions from this weekend. I spent quite a few years on the pit wall, and this is the first time in F1 that we have this situation where eight drivers can win the race without an accident or a big crash, that four teams are able to win or be on the podium. For me, the most impressive weekend was probably Spa where McLaren dominated in FP1 and Red Bull in FP2, where we start from pole and where Mercedes wins the race (Lewis Hamilton winner on the green carpet after the disqualification of George Russell, first under the checkered flag. Editor's note: With eight cars this competitive, one team can go 1-2 and another 7-8, which can make a huge difference in terms of points.

Does this victory outclass the pole position achieved last year at Monza, which you described at the time as the best memory of your short career at Ferrari?

It's more the next morning, when we do the debriefing, that you say to yourself: "OK that was mega"! Tonight, it's a bit like Monaco, where we were a bit sucked into the event. The big difference, however, is that Monaco was more than important for Charles who had been chasing this home victory for a long time. From the beginning of the weekend, I said that the support of the tifosi was so important that if we could do something for them, it would be huge... I'm very, very happy for the team, for Charles, for everyone because I think we did a good job.

Do you expect this dynamic to continue in Baku and Singapore?

At Zandvoort I was convinced that the next three races would probably be a good thing for us. Monza was, but let's see what happens next...

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