In today’s edition of the Italian magazine Autosprint, a lengthy interview with the team principal of Scuderia Ferrari, Fred Vasseur, has been published. In this interview, he analyzes the results of the Scuderia up to this point and outlines what needs to be done to rectify a season that started off on the wrong foot. Below are some excerpts from the long interview.
Fred Vasseur pleased with Spa-Francorchamps result
Fred Vasseur is a manager who is far from emotional, expressing calmness and lucidity. He has had a clear grasp of the situation since he stepped into Maranello in January. Unfortunately, the 2023 Formula One season hasn’t gone as the Maranello team expected, which is why the Prancing Horse has a recovery plan ready to go, starting in the Netherlands at the end of the month, following the summer break.
Discussing the Belgian Grand Prix, where Charles Leclerc secured third place for the Italian side, behind the two Red Bulls cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, the Frenchman stated: “We need to stay calm, without getting overly excited today or getting down when things aren’t going as well. Balance is key in judgment and emotions. After the post-race meeting in Budapest, it seemed to many that it was the end of the world, that McLaren was soaring, and we didn’t know how to do our job. Seven days later, everything changed. We need to stay calm and do our job race after race, with the right spirit and working on our limitations.”
“The competition is very close, and it takes nothing to lose two tenths and find ourselves from second to eleventh position. We’re not at the end of the season, and there’s still a lot of work to do, but I’m happy to face this summer break after a good race in Spa-Francorchamps.” – he continued.
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During the Belgian weekend, the SF-23 had minimal tire degradation, a problem that has historically affected the Italian side. On this topic, Frederic Vasseur said: “We had a good race pace, which is the key to everything. In the past, there were weekends where we lacked pace and had to push too hard, damaging the tires. Often, even Red Bull manages its race pace to avoid penalizing their tires. On the Ardennes track, we managed tire wear a lot with Charles Leclerc; everything is much simpler when there’s a good race pace.” – the Ferrari boss continued.
When asked whether he attributes the good performance at Spa-Francorchamps to the track type or the updates brought to the car, the Ferrari team principal said: “That’s a good question; both aspects are important. I’m pleased because we had a competitive weekend in different conditions. We were consistently fast, and that’s pleasing. However, we need to understand why we perform well on certain tracks and not on others. It takes very little to go from being the second-strongest team to the fifth globally, but it’s still too early to draw conclusions. Meanwhile, we need to understand why we’re weak in certain situations and address them, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.” – Fred Vasseur concluded in his interview for Autosprint.
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