Thread by @JunaidSamodien_

AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT - Frédéric Vasseur finally has a result in hand. With two pole positions, a second place in the sprint, a third place in the main race and 36 points under your belt, you can put on a friendly face. Ferrari has improved.

And finally Vasseur can also argue with countable results. "If you go home with zero points, nobody takes you seriously when you talk about progress."

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Ferrari's progress cannot be seen directly on the car. While the Scuderia brought a Baku-specific rear wing, so did Aston Martin, Alpine, McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Haas and AlphaTauri. The wing wasn't Ferrari's secret.

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That was the general attitude of the SF-23, which has been marching in a different direction since the Australian GP. In Baku, the way was contested further. "We're going in the right direction," states Vasseur with satisfaction.

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Since Melbourne, Ferrari has been able to drive the car lower than before without being penalized by bouncing. This brings downforce and more confidence from the driver. At least for one round. The situation is not yet stable over the distance.

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And that then causes the tires to wear out more than Red Bull, who have a much more stable platform. At the finish, Charles Leclerc was 21 seconds behind the winner. That's a lot of wood if you have to find that time.

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While Leclerc believes Red Bull still had something up their sleeve, Vasseur believes the opponent has been challenged for the first time. Not from his pursuers. The Red Bull drivers drove themselves to ever new records.

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The internal exchange of blows ensured that the maximum lead was already reached in lap 38. From then on, the pursuers drove as fast as the winners. "It was our plan to take it easy, to have reserves for the end," said Vasseur.

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That was also badly needed. In the 31st lap, Fernando Alonso was stuck with Leclerc's Ferrari in the DRS area.

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A short intermediate sprint by the fastest in training and a four-second gap was restored. "We already thought that Fernando would protect the tires at the beginning and then increase the speed. That's why we did it the same way," said Leclerc.

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Ferrari based their race on the experience of sprinting on Aston Martin and Mercedes. Red Bull is still too far away. "We have a car with which we can beat Red Bull in one lap, but we have to work on making it more...."

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".....consistent for many laps. It's a combination of aerodynamics and mechanics," believes Vasseur.

Vasseur is proud that his team did not panic after the results crisis in the first races. "We continued to work in peace, didn't immediately question the concept or blindly...."

".....throw new parts at the car." That's why Ferrari wants to stick to its cautious upgrade policy. Rather step by step instead of large packages. "We didn't allow ourselves to be tempted to bring many new developments to an event where there was limited testing."

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One thing drives Ferrari as much as all other teams. Why does Red Bull benefit so extremely from the DRS effect? When Perez and Verstappen flew past Leclerc, they cut back on the ideal line comfortably before the braking point.

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Everyone else didn't even come up to the same level. "We have to understand that because it's a real competitive advantage," says Vasseur.

READ THE FULL AMuS STORY IN GERMAN HERE auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/ferra…