Nico Rosberg Says Ferrari’s Real Problem Is Not Pace but “Messy Weekends” as Vasseur Demands Better Execution in Baku

• Ferrari have taken only one podium in their last five races even as the SF-26 has shown flashes of genuine pace, including provisional pole in Madrid.
• Team principal Frederic Vasseur says execution, not raw speed, will decide how Ferrari fare at the wall-lined Baku City Circuit this weekend.
• Nico Rosberg points to strategy and communication as Ferrari’s recurring weakness, arguing the team is close enough to win races but keeps failing to put a weekend together.

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A Podium Drought That Does Not Match the Pace

Ferrari head into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix trying to break a pattern that has quietly derailed both of their championship campaigns. After winning the British Grand Prix at the start of July, their second win in the space of three races, the team’s form in both title fights has faded fast. Charles Leclerc’s second place in Belgium before the summer break remains their only podium finish from the last five rounds.

That slump has arrived even as the SF-26 continues to look competitive at different points across race weekends. In Madrid, Lewis Hamilton held provisional pole after the first runs of qualifying’s final segment, only to end up fourth on the grid by the time the session had finished.

Vasseur Wants Every Part of the Weekend Put Together

Heading to a wall-lined street circuit where momentum counts for a great deal and mistakes are punished quickly, Vasseur wants his team to put together a cleaner weekend than they have managed of late.

“The last few races have demonstrated that our car can deliver a good level of competitiveness, but they have also highlighted how important it is to put every part of the weekend together,” the Ferrari team principal said.

“Baku is a very specific challenge, where confidence in the car and execution are particularly important. It is also a circuit where the weekend can throw up several variables, so we need to stay focused on ourselves, adapt to whatever situations arise and make the most of every opportunity.”

A Title Drought Now Stretching Into Its 18th Year

The run of results has consequences beyond one bad weekend. Ferrari’s lack of podiums has left their hopes of ending an 18-year wait for a world championship looking increasingly remote this season, with both the drivers’ and constructors’ fights slipping further out of reach with every round that passes without a strong result.

The Numbers Behind the Slide

The scale of Ferrari’s recent decline shows up clearly in the standings. Lead scorer Hamilton slipped more than 100 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli for the first time after retiring from the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid with brake problems, and Ferrari now trail Mercedes by 145 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

The threat from behind is closing fast too. Third-placed McLaren have outscored Ferrari at each of the last four rounds and have cut the gap to 52 points, with nine rounds still scheduled to run. That leaves Ferrari fending off a rival closing from behind in the constructors’ fight while still trying to keep Mercedes in view ahead of them, a squeeze that leaves little room for the kind of messy weekends Rosberg describes.

Rosberg Points to the “Achilles’ Heel”

Speaking on The F1 Show podcast, Sky Sports F1 pundit and 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg said Ferrari’s underlying pace has rarely been the issue this year. It is what the team does with that pace once a race weekend is underway that keeps costing them results.

“Isn’t it the case that Ferrari always have messy weekends?” Rosberg asked. “It’s just that Achilles’ heel is still in the strategy area, communication area. That’s always been a weakness and still is a weakness of theirs now.”

Rosberg pointed back to Madrid as the clearest recent example. “Because the pace of the car is close, it’s damn close to being able to challenge consistency for race wins,” he said. “And even now, let’s not forget, Lewis would have in a comfortable second position in the race. He would have finished second after Max had to let him through. He would have definitely finished second place behind Kimi quite easily.”

“They’re very close. They’re just not putting it together properly. And they really need to somehow make progress on that. That’s the main problem they’re facing.”

A Street Circuit That Leaves No Room for Error

Baku’s long walls and narrow braking zones make it an unforgiving venue to test Vasseur’s demand for cleaner execution, where momentum counts for a great deal and mistakes get punished fast. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been moved to a Saturday this year, with Sunday, September 27, marking Azerbaijan’s Remembrance Day, so practice runs across Thursday and qualifying lands on Friday ahead of Saturday’s midday race.

The race also opens a triple-header, with rounds in Malaysia and Singapore following on the next two weekends, leaving Ferrari little time to fix recurring problems between events should Baku itself go wrong.

Leclerc’s Belgium Podium Remains the High-Water Mark

Charles Leclerc’s second-place finish in Belgium, secured before the summer break, is still the closest either Ferrari driver has come to a win across this five-race stretch. Nothing in Zandvoort, Monza, Madrid or the rounds either side of them has produced a repeat, even with the car regularly showing enough pace across a lap to suggest it should have.

Rosberg’s diagnosis lines up with what Ferrari have shown all year: a car capable of matching the front of the field in isolated moments, undone by decisions and communication once the pressure of a live race weekend sets in. Vasseur’s call for the team to “stay focused on ourselves” and “adapt to whatever situations arise” reads as a direct response to exactly that pattern heading into a circuit that offers little forgiveness for hesitation.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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