Fred Vasseur happy after Ferrari achieve pre-season testing target as he outlines importance of 2026 development

Fred Vasseur reflected positively on how Ferrari’s pre-season testing unfolded in Bahrain, with the team boss suggesting that the squad did “pretty well” in terms of meeting their target to gain a lot of mileage, though also cautioned that development will be key to “keeping momentum” during the season ahead.

Charles Leclerc ended the second and final test at the Bahrain International Circuit with the fastest time set throughout the three-day event, topping the timesheets via his effort of 1m 31.992s as well as amassing a lap count of 132 on Friday.

It marked the close of what looked to be a productive few days for the Scuderia and, when asked after Day 3 of the second test if he was happy with how everything had gone for the squad, Vasseur answered: “Happy, yes, but we have to keep in mind what was the target at the beginning.

“Our target was to do a lot of mileage and I think this went pretty well, to collect data, to try to improve session after session, and I think this went well.

“Now, performance is not relative – it’s not performance relative and, at the end of the day, we don’t know the level of fuel of the others, we don’t know the engine mode, we don’t know that we didn’t have the same tyres.

“It means that, let’s be focused on ourselves to try to do a better job in Melbourne and this weekend, and we’ll see where we are.”

With pre-season testing now complete, the teams and drivers will next hit the track when the Australian Grand Prix kicks off the 24-round campaign on March 6-8.

In terms of his expectations for that first race, Vasseur suggested that the ability to develop quickly will perhaps be more crucial going forwards into the season than focusing too much on the outcome of the opening round.

“I had a clear idea before this session that I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter, the result of Melbourne, because I prefer to have a good result than a bad one,” the Ferrari Team Principal explained.

“But at the end of the day, I know that the development will be so huge during the season that the most important is the capacity of the team to develop, the capacity of the team to bring parts quickly, much more than the performance at race one.

“It means that we need to keep the momentum of the season and to be focused on development.”