Fred Vasseur makes confident Ferrari win prediction despite Red Bull dominance

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Fred Vasseur believes Ferrari will still win multiple races this season even after Red Bull started the season in ominous fashion.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix by a margin of more than 22 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.

But team principal Vasseur insists – speaking via Racing News 365 – Ferrari have still shown the potential to taste victory themselves in 2024.

Charles Leclerc was Verstappen’s nearest challenger in qualifying, lining up on the front row after lapping two tenths slower.

Leclerc had actually set a time in Q2 that would have been good enough for pole position.

On Saturday, the Monegasque wrestled with brake issues that cost him six tenths per lap for around a third of the race.

Carlos Sainz, however, got past Leclerc and Mercedes driver George Russell to finish third and cement Ferrari’s second-best status.

Sainz briefly threatened to take the runner-up spot from Perez on more durable hard compound tyres but he wasn’t able to gain enough time.

Fred Vasseur says Ferrari can still win a number of races this season

Speaking to media outlets including Racing News 365 after the race, Vasseur said Ferrari will be more competitive at other tracks than they were in Bahrain.

The 55-year-old, who took over as team principal ahead of the 2023 season, has vowed that the team will ‘continue to push’.

“We were able to fight for the pole but the degradation in Bahrain is always huge for everybody,” he said.

“It means that we’ll have other occasions to start from pole and also occasions to win races.

“We will keep this approach, we will continue to push. Everybody in the team is over-motivated.

“I’m quite pleased with the step that we did compared to 12 months ago and I will continue to push.”

Ferrari will hope to mount greater threat in Jeddah

Ferrari may have expected to be a closer match for Red Bull in Sakhir on the evidence of pre-season testing and practice.

Sainz and Leclerc had set the two fastest laps of the test, and the former was fastest in final practice before qualifying.

Journalist Juan Fossaroli says the Spaniard was ‘a little bit surprised’ about the extent of Verstappen’s superiority in the race.

However, the three-time world champion has already offered rivals some hope ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

He thinks that the 3.8-mile street circuit in Jeddah may be a venue better-suited to the RB20’s challengers.