Could Charles Leclerc have won the Formula 1 race in Hungary? Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur explains what went wrong
Although Ferrari failed to convert its lead into victory at the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, team boss Frederic Vasseur sees “definitely many positive aspects” in the performance of his Formula 1 team – even if the final result is expressly “not satisfactory.”
“At Spa, we were only two tenths of a second behind in the race. In Budapest, we had pole position and were in the lead for 40 laps. We can take a lot of positives from that,” says Vasseur.
Ferrari has improved particularly in technical terms: Vasseur rates the new rear suspension as “good” and says: “Now the performance is back.”
Why Ferrari had to react to Piastri
This was particularly evident at the Hungaroring in the first stint: Charles Leclerc led in the Ferrari and was not under pressure. “We were even able to extend the lead slightly. That part of the race went really well for us,” explains Vasseur.
“We had everything under control and didn’t feel like we had to push too hard. We were even able to extend the stint without the tires losing consistency.”
This makes Ferrari’s disappointment at not winning all the greater. “When you’re leading at the start and then have to pit on lap 12 because the tires are at the end of their life, you can say, ‘Okay, I pushed too hard.’ But that wasn’t the case here,” said Vasseur.
“We only came in to prevent Oscar Piastri from undercutting us. We could have driven a few more laps at the same pace. It’s frustrating.”
Ferrari has no strategic leeway
However, Vasseur does not see the main reason for the defeat in Hungary in McLaren’s superior strategy, but rather in Ferrari itself: “We need to understand why we lost pace in the race, but we must not draw any definitive conclusions from this last stint.”
Vasseur explains that Lando Norris chose his winning strategy “out of necessity because he was four or five seconds behind Piastri.” “In this situation, it was a good decision for McLaren not to put both cars on the same strategy, but to try something different.”
Ferrari did not have this luxury: Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton finished twelfth in the other Ferrari after starting from twelfth on the grid, thus playing no role in the Grand Prix points. Ferrari therefore had to respond to Piastri with Leclerc.
But McLaren has been warned after Leclerc’s performances in Spa and Budapest: Team boss Andrea Stella counts Ferrari among the contenders for victory in the remaining races of the season.