According to Frederic Vasseur, the newly appointed Maranello F1 team boss, Scuderia Ferrari will receive assistance from all employees to overcome their current predicament. After the difficult Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, where they qualified second to last despite a significant upgrade package, Charles Leclerc expressed frustration with the Maranello team after once again failing to advance to Q3, this time at the 4.361-kilometre Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal .
“This is not the first time that we mess up like this,” he told the media. “And this time it was really easy to interpret the situation correctly,” Charles Leclerc pointed out at the end of the qualifying session for the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday, when asked by the media about the tyre choice made by the Maranello team given the difficult track conditions:
“Everyone could see how the situation was developing. I told my people on the radio and asked for slick tyres. And then they only gave me slicks when it started to rain heavily again. Why does this keep happening to us?” – the Monegasque driver added, visibly affected by the difficult moment of Ferrari.
Acknowledging the existing challenges, Frederic Vasseur concedes that the Italian side needs to address two key areas: improving the SF-23 car’s performance and refining the Maranello team’s decision-making process, particularly evident in situations such as the tire choice conundrum faced at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve
“When I arrived, the car was already parked there, in the workshop,” the Frenchman explained in a recent interview for L’Equipe. “So, I focused first on the track. I detected some weaknesses which we try to correct. That was the first objective. We are now starting to work on the car,” he added.
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While there are those advocating for Scuderia Ferrari to completely abandon the 2023 Formula One season in order to focus on rectifying their issues for the following championship, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur cautions against losing sight of the bigger picture.
“I have the advantage of coming from a team where a podium was a bit of an ultimate goal,” he said, referring to Alfa Romeo-Sauber. “So I know how to put things into perspective. Sure, a podium for Ferrari is not enough. When you are here or at Mercedes or Red Bull, the objective is to win. And clearly, we are not achieving the objective today. But I try to make everyone understand that it is the job of all our employees to work for victory. Performance comes from all employees,” – the Frenchman continued.
When quizzed further on whether the 2023 Formula 1 campaign and the SF-23 challenger should be definitely written off, Fred Vassuer concluded: “I don’t think we should bet everything on next year. The 2024 cars will be very similar to this year’s, so it’s essentially that we fully understand this one to make the next one a success.”
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