Ferrari's relentless drive for perfection crossed a thin line in China, according to team principal Frederic Vasseur.
Italian outlets have labelled the 2025 car project bold yet "immature," a view borne out in Shanghai where Lewis Hamilton clinched the sprint from pole but faltered in the grand prix.
The weekend soured further when FIA officials ruled both cars illegal post-race—Hamilton's plank worn beyond limits, and Charles Leclerc's car falling short on weight.
"We must have been too aggressive," Vasseur admitted to France's L'Equipe. "That's how it is.
"This setback shows that we are in search of perfection and that sometimes we look too far."
The breaches were narrow—Leclerc's car just 1kg under, and Hamilton's plank a mere 0.5mm too thin.
"You have to make a distinction between disqualification because you're taking risks and disqualification because someone is cheating," Vasseur insisted.
"The aim of the game in F1 is to push yourself to the limit of all parameters, everywhere. To get to the last gram of weight, to get to the last tenth of a millimetre of a skid, to get to the last millimetre of wing deformation.
"It's certain that the more pressure you're under, the more intense the fight, the closer you need to get to those limits and the more risks you take."
Vasseur remains optimistic about Ferrari's shot at the 2025 title against McLaren. "Of course McLaren is in good shape," he told motorsport-total.com. "But that does not mean that the championship is over for us.
"We are talking about a tenth or a tenth and a half per lap," said the Frenchman. "You can go from P6 to P1 or from P1 to P6, so we have to be calm, work step by step and make changes to the car until the very last moment."
