Singapore GP: Fred Vasseur Left To Rue 'Mega Frustrating' Weekend As Ferrari Falters

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur described the Scuderia's weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix as "mega frustrating" after showing promise before Sunday's race. 

Vasseur watched on as Charles Leclerc finished sixth, 46 seconds behind race winner George Russell, while Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag down in eighth. 

That race result saw Ferrari drop to second place in the Constructors' Championship, with Russell's Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli taking fifth place. 

And with McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finishing third and fourth, respectively, the British team retained the constructors' title with six races of the season to go. 

Ferrari have now failed to win the team title since 2008, when Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were behind the wheel, piling further pressure on Vasseur to deliver. 

As at previous races this year, both Ferraris had shown promising pace in Friday practice before failing to deliver in qualifying and giving themselves too much ground to make up.

"What is mega frustrating is that for the last two weekends we went to Baku and then Singapore. At the beginning of the weekend, the pace was there," said Vasseur.

"We didn't extract the best from the car, I think, honestly. We are doing 29.7s in Q1 and 29.7s in Q3. We are struggling at the end of all the races not to be at the back foot.

"For the team, it's mega frustrating. The team and drivers are for all of us, because we are not pushing [because of the brakes].

"At the end of the day, we are putting so much effort to be there, that when you have to do all the races on the backfoot, it's not good."

Vasseur also revealed that both drivers were struggling with brake overheating early on in the 62-lap race, and that as a result their performance took a hit.

"Very early in the race we asked Charles to do a lift and coast," he said. "It's not just a matter of doing a lift and coast when you're losing a little bit at the end of the straight.

"It's also to find the right braking point. In all the races that we were a bit more, a bit less, a bit more, a bit less, a bit more on the rear, a bit more on the front.

"You had to change the brake balance. At the end, you lose probably more on the reference for you when you are driving the car than on the pure potential."

Hamilton was, however, able to add another point to his personal tally by recording the fastest lap at the Marina Bay Circuit.

The seven-time world champion achieved the feat in the closing stages of the race, having made a second pit stop for fresh soft tyres before his major brake issues. 

"It's a fake fastest lap for me. We are not in the same situation. What I can say is that when he was pushing, the pace was there," added Vasseur.

"The gap with the cars in front of him was coherent with the delta that you have on the tyres. But nothing more than this.

"It's also frustrating for us, because we had the feeling that when we did three laps in a row without saving, that the pace was not bad."

In the Drivers' Championship, Leclerc is 163 points adrift of leader Piastri while Hamilton finds himself 211 adrift of the Australian.