“We started badly and gave the slipstream to everyone”: Ferrari boss left frustrated with Mexico F1 GP results due to bad start

Ferrari F1 Team Principal Frederic Vasseur wasn't happy with his drivers' starts in the 2023 Mexican GP on Sunday as they slipstreamed everyone behind them.

The Italian team locked out the front row for the main race on Sunday with Charles Leclerc starting ahead of Carlos Sainz. However, both drivers lost position at the beginning of the first start as Max Verstappen jumped them to get into first position.

Speaking with Motorsport Italy, Vasseur pointed out that in both the start and the restart, they gave slipstream to cars behind that made life difficult for them. He said:

"I'm not satisfied with the start. It's not a question of management, it's that we started badly and gave the slipstream to everyone, losing control of the situation. First of all, if you start badly you lose ground from the others and lose the slipstream.

"This led Charles to being between Verstappen and Perez and, later, having contact with them. At that point part of the wing broke and we also had problems with Carlos. But the underlying problem is that we started badly, because Max is already in front of Carlos after a few meters,"

Ferrari team boss on choosing hard tires over medium for final part of the race

Ferrari team boss stated that he was surprised that Lewis Hamilton and some others chose medium tires for the restart as he thought they would not last the final stint in comparison to hard tires.

Vasseur said:

"After the initial accident I believe that the balance of Leclerc's car was not ideal. But we struggled due to a tire problem. The medium tire was better for our car and Max's gap was relative to the damage we had. We managed the gap from him well despite having some damage. Instead, with the Hard tyres, we struggled with the pace.

"It was much more difficult to restart and have a good pace. We were surprised to see Hamilton doing so many laps on Medium tyres. For the second stint we couldn't count on a set of new Mediums. We only had one used after the qualifying and was a bit at the limit for the duration,"

Ferrari managed to make a dent in Mercedes's lead for P2 in the Constructor's Championship as they reduced the gap to 22 points with just three races to go, which included Sprint this weekend in Brazil.