In a recent interview for German automobile magazine ‘Auto Motor und Sport’, Alfa Romeo team boss Frédéric Vasseur talks about the restart of Formula 1, the season goals, the uncertainty of the racing calendar, the Formula 1 business and the driver market.
What is the 2020 goal?
Vasseur: We want to do better than 2019. The midfield will be very close together. We don’t know how many races the calendar will have. We will have to take every opportunity. We had some good races in 2019. If a golden opportunity opens up, such as last year in Hockenheim or Sao Paulo, we have to be on hand and clear away. Every time.
How will the car in Austria differ from that during the winter test drives in Barcelona?
Vasseur: It will be different. We had scheduled updates for the third and fifth races. We will see them on the car in Austria. For all teams, especially the small ones, it will subsequently depend on where the journey is going: How many races will we have? What income can we expect? We do not exactly know the economic situation in the current season. Therefore it is difficult to estimate further updates. We’ll wait a bit.
Eight European races have been decided, the rest are pending. How hard is it to plan such a season?
Vasseur: It will probably result in eight to 16 races. More would be difficult. We don’t know what comes in. It is therefore difficult to determine the exact budget of the team. And as long as we don’t know where we are driving, development is difficult. Do we need a low downforce package or a high downforce package? It is a blind flight, so to speak. In the near future, probably even before Spielberg, we will have a better understanding of what to expect in 2020.
You already know that at least for Spa and Monza you will need a package with little downforce.
Vasseur: So far. But before we develop more packages, we need to secure the revenue and know how many races we will be driving.
Can you already say which tokens the team will use to further develop the two areas apart from aerodynamics?
Vasseur: That is too early to say. We first have to race with the current car. We need to know which areas we need to improve before we make the decision.
But you have to tell the FIA pretty early on when to use which tokens.
Vasseur: That’s right. But let’s do one or two races before we decide.
Large parts of the vehicle are frozen. What do you expect for the development in 2021?
Vasseur: We will probably switch to the 2022 car sooner than we normally would. With the existing rules, we are approaching the end. The rule changes for 2022 are big. But I cannot yet predict exactly when we will stop developing the 2020/2021 car.
But do you expect that there will only be narrow-gauge developments in 2021 and that many teams would rather rush for the new car?
Vasseur: The rules only allow developments in aerodynamics. Unless you use your tokens. We’ll be spending quite a lot of resources on the 2022 car pretty early. Whether you tick off a season and concentrate fully on the year after next is always a pre-season decision. But it’s mostly like this: If you then sit at the command post, you want to develop the current car again.
There were a couple of driver changes during the break. What about your drivers?
Vasseur: We are in a different situation. We always make our decisions between October and November. We won’t change that. I want us to focus on the races first. We have to deliver this year because it is important for the next one because of the prize money. We shouldn’t waste energy on it today. Our driver pairing is a good one. I trust them. Antonio improves. He had a good second half of the 2019 season. We will definitely have a good pair of drivers again in 2021. We’ll talk about that later. Now is not the time for it.
Alfa Romeo buys certain parts from Ferrari. For example the engine. Do you think you will buy more parts from Ferrari in the future? Or less?
Vasseur: We have a strong collaboration with Ferrari. It runs fine. I don’t think we will change our approach in the near future. Structural changes involve a long process. Buy more, buy less: you don’t change that from one year to the next. We are building something together with Ferrari.
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