The 2023 Formula 1 world championship is approaching. Nine days have passed since Frédéric Vasseur first occupied the chair of his new office in via Abetone, Maranello, to fill the role of Ferrari team principal. Seven official days of work that come after weeks in which the French manager had however started to organize the activities. This despite the fact that Mattia Binotto was still in the saddle for the sole purpose of handling the current paperwork.
The Prancing Horse, after one year of “I wish but I can’t” in which it savored the bitter illusion of being able to win the title and then woke up fast due to a nightmare called Red Bull, intends to be ready this time.
To do this, the John Elkann / Benedetto Vigna duo embarked on a corporate restructuring that may not be finished, given that a technical director is still missing (Mattia Binotto also covered this role, ed) and the head of the strategic area, Inaki Rueda, could be fired in the next few days. But here we are in the realm of speculation because the rather deep and lengthy evaluations are still ongoing.
Certainly Scuderia Ferrari has a clear understanding of what it has to do on the technical front. The Maranello technicians, considering the regulation continuity compared to last season which was marked by regulation changes that affected the floor area of the single-seater (the new rules for 2023 should not upset the philosophical system set twelve months ago), have made great efforts to create a car up to par.
The new Ferrari single-seater will have to overcome the problems that have affected above all the reliability of the power unit, the management of the Pirelli tires in terms of race pace and the high drag in relation to that generated by the Red Bull RB18. More detailed information about Ferrari’s 675 project for the 2023 Formula One championship can be found here.
The news is that there is no news. Put in these terms it seems like a joke for the readers. It’s not like that. The first postcard of the Frederic Vasseur method is the absence of institutional communication. All the specialized press hoped – and basically believed – that the debut of the former Sauber would be accompanied by a press conference to meet the journalists and answer questions on his new role in Maranello. None of this happened; none of this will happen between now and February 13, the date on which 675 project will be officially presented.
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Everything that has come from Ferrari pertains to the press releases relating to the changes in commercial sponsorships of the team that welcomes two new partners. For the rest we are witnessing a deathly silence. And, nothing transpires outside the Maranello walls even from inside sources.
A change of pace in the media perhaps necessary after the public management characterized by the four-year Mattia Binotto period, a scenario in which too many situations have not gone the right way. One of the reasons why the engineer from Reggio no longer occupies his seat is a certain inconsistency from the point of view of communication that we can deduce from various episodes which characterized the 2022 Formula One championship. Among these we recall the suddenly change of targets for the previous season:
“This is certainly a single-seater in which we have put the best of us, Charles and Carlos know it, we all know it. […] This is a Ferrari that I want to define as courageous. Obviously, we wanted to interpret the new regulation in a different way. […] Now we have to measure ourselves against the opponents, it’s the most beautiful challenge and what makes our job so fascinating.“
“With the F1-75 we want to fight on the track at every race and at every Grand Prix, meter by meter with our rivals, even for the most important objectives. We have a responsibility towards our company and our partners and above all I would like it to be the single-seater that will allow our fans and us to be proud of Ferrari.”
The above is an excerpt of the comments that Mattia Binotto had made on February 17, 2022, the day when the Maranello team launched the F1-75, the car with which Mattia Binotto tried to bring the titles back to Italy. All traces of that car that had to fight on every track have been lost since the French GP.
The F1-75 was never able to keep up with Red Bull, sometimes surpassed in performance by the stuttering Mercedes W13, David Sanchez’s car has heavily and irreversibly withdrawn from the fight in the summer heat. And with this change of pace, the media wind has also changed direction.
The self-confident Mattia Binotto of the first phase of the championship started again to talk about a young team, data analysis and improvement to be accomplished in a more dilated time span to achieve the title victory. The original problem, which he clearly discounted, is that he bet all his chips on the new technical regulation imposed by the FIA.
The gamble didn’t pay off and the engineer admitted that 2023 would finally be the good year. A postponement of the targets that Benedetto Vigna, CEO of Ferrari, did not like at all. Something covertly remarked on the occasion of the presentation of the quarterly financial results. This aspect too weighed heavily on Ferrari’s restructuring.
Frederic Vasseur will want to avoid similar leaps forward which are followed by clumsy setbacks . Do you remember the unfortunate “we will try to win them all” comment after Charles Leclerc’s mistake while leading the French GP? Well, Ferrari hasn’t won a single race since then, giving Red Bull an easy title and even seeing the “derelict” W13 score a great double at the Sao Paulo track in Brazil.
The new management will not want to run into similar issues. Nor will it want to create tensions with the press. In the recent past, the relationship with the media has not always been set up correctly. In the season of global disappointment, the communication with information professionals has not always worked properly. Nothing systemic, but it is a single episode that can be interpreted as a test of an absolutely improvable way of acting.
Mattia Binotto, following legitimate criticisms made by those who hold the rights to broadcast Formula One in Italy, produced an unreasonable press blackout. A mediation between the parties was needed to bring the barometer back to the clear. The climate of tension subsequently subsided but the (we imagine) request to avoid uncomfortable questions remains.
An attitude that does not suit the duty to inform and the right of a reporter to ask questions that have not been agreed upon and perhaps annoying, prodding. This aspect too probably marked the relationship with a management that cannot link its glorious name to communication mistakes that can affect its image.
Fred Vasseur is now in charge and will impose a change in communication strategy. Hence, probably, the silence that is characterizing this stage of the season. No proclamations in a period in which it is necessary to re-build the load-bearing walls of the red Maranello fort, shattered by yet another change at the top in a policy too often oriented towards the cutting off of heads rather than conservation and stability.
There is just under a month left for the event in which the 2023 Italian single-seater will be shown to the world. It should be a sober ceremony and in line with the style not accustomed to the glamor and noise that the Ferrari Racing Department number one wanted to impose.
Until that date, no official press releases should emerge from the top figures of Ferrari. Unless news arrives regarding the technical and strategic sectors which, as reported at the beginning, could be subject to further restructuring.
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