Where Ferrari can learn from Mercedes after 'failing massively' in Canada

Fred Vasseur believes Ferrari can learn from Mercedes after conceding his side “failed massively” at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix.

Ferrari endured another lacklustre weekend in Montreal as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were unable to challenge for pole position and ended up finishing a distant fifth and sixth.

Both drivers could not match the pace of the Mercedes, McLarens or Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in Sunday’s 70-lap race, while seven-time world champion Hamilton’s struggles were exacerbated due to damage when he hit a groundhog.

And Vasseur feels Ferrari can take inspiration from Mercedes in improving their execution over race weekends as the team aims to get back into winning contention.

"We showed that we were on the pace when Charles set a purple sector one in qualifying," Vasseur said. "It was the weak point all over the weekend. I don't want to say that we would have done the pole position, but at least we would have been in a good shape.

"We made too many mistakes collectively from the beginning with the crash in FP1, with the mistake in qualifying, with the marmot in the race. At the end, the fight is so tight. You can change positions for almost nothing from one weekend to another if you don't do the perfect weekend.

"It's a good lesson also from Mercedes. They were nowhere the last three weekends, and they were able to have the two cars on the podium this weekend. I'm not sure that they changed completely the car. From lap one on Friday morning, they were there, they did a good job in the preparation.”

Is execution Ferrari’s biggest weakness?

Vasseur went on to pinpoint further areas where Ferrari are lacking compared to their main rivals.

"The main issue is to have a good tyre usage first, understand the tyres and to choose the good ones for the qualifying,” he explained.

"The exercise is quite difficult. I think Max and Mercedes did a better job on the weekend than McLaren and us, but it's also in the choice of the tyres, probably from the beginning of the weekend. And this you have to commit to from Friday morning almost.

"There is more performance from using the tyres than there is between the cars. It's true this weekend, it was true in Monaco, it was true in Imola. We have to do a better job.

"We were able to be in front in Monaco. We were able to be in front in the first part of the qualifying lap here. But if we want to start from the first rows, we need to do a very smooth weekend in terms of execution. And it's where we failed massively in Canada."