Fred Vasseur corrects interviewer with a cheeky reply about Ferrari being ‘better’ on Sundays

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur gave a hilarious reply when he was asked about the car's race pace. The team has been performing much better in races this year than the qualifying sessions.

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc qualified in P2 and P4 (respectively), marking the starting position of the Prancing Horse in Las Vegas. Although Ferrari has shown better pace in qualifying than the races in recent seasons, 2024 has seen a dramatic change. The SF-24 has been rather faster during the races than in qualifying sessions.

After the session ended, a journalist remarked on this and asked Vasseur if the car has been performing better on Sundays. The Ferrari boss took it as the perfect opportunity to drop a hint of his wit.

"Your car is always faster on Sundays," said the journalist.

"Yes, but we’re racing on Saturday," replied Vassuer.

Unlike the traditional race weekends, the Las Vegas Grand Prix witnesses the main race on a Sunday. This is because of the massive time difference between the state of Nevada and the mid-European countries. The difference is close to 10 hours and the event is globally watched. So, to give the viewers a more comfortable viewing experience across the globe, the Las Vegas GP is held on a Saturday.

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Charles Leclerc explains his "nightmare" qualifying as he fails to put his Ferrari on the front row

Ferrari was very close to locking up the front row during the final few minutes of the session. However, the two cars were first surprisingly split by Pierre Gasly's Alpine, and then George Russell topped the chart with the fastest lap.

Discussing his performance, Charles Leclerc mentioned that he faced issues with extracting the most out of the car in a single lap. He also mentioned that his teammate Carlos Sainz had been faster than him since the first free practice session.

"The pace is there… [I’m] very fast after three laps but in qualifying you cannot afford to do that,” he reflected. “Carlos has been much better than me since FP1 in putting the tyres in the right window for the first lap – he’s done a better job in qualifying doing that."

The cold temperature in Las Vegas was an issue for most of the drivers on the grid as they found it difficult to heat the tires. Leclerc stated that his "ice cold" tires lacked grip and ruined the lap.

"I really tried my best to try and improve but, for whatever reason, and I don’t have the explanation for now, in Q3 my last run was a nightmare... The front [tyres] were ice cold and I had like a crazy understeer all around through the lap."

Ferrari is currently attempting to chase McLaren in the constructors' championship race. McLaren has a 36-point lead with three races remaining in the season.