Transcript in English of new Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur’s recent interview for Canal +:
Buongiorno Frederico, are you taking Italian lessons?
Fred Vasseur: Yes, I’m taking them every morning, my teacher tells me that i’m going to make it
How far along are you?
Fred Vasseur: But my teachers always tells me that I’m gonna make it (Laughs)
Director of the Ferrari team, how would you describe this challenge?
Fred Vasseur: Well, it’s a big challenge, it’s sure that being in a team that has the means to win in F1, well it’s not an achievement, because in fact what’s beautiful is to win, so we’ll see that at the end of the season. But there are not many teams that are capable of winning in F1, there are maybe three on paper this year and we are one of those three.
The fact of you being a French boss at Ferrari inevitably makes one think of Jean Todt, can his success here be quickly reproduced?
Fred Vasseur: I think that you should not make hasty comparisons, F1 has changed enormously in the last 30 years and there is nothing comparable. I also think that, at the time when I was entering the bills at Ferrari, the situation was more complicated than it is today… but it is certain that it was a phase of exceptional success for the company and for the team and it is an inspiration somewhat.
What were your first decisions?
Fred Vasseur: The first decision is personal, I see that I want to integrate into the team. Because it’s my first objective, to know people well, it’s a big structure, you need to spend some time face to face with people. I’m in this phase right now, I don’t have any decisions to make, I’m not at all arrogant with regard to the organization in place, so what I want to do right now is understand what’s going on before passing the second gear.
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What is your contribution to the design of the 2023 car?
Fred Vasseur: For the design (my contribution) it has been nothing, because the car has been designed for a few months already. The engines have been finished for a few weeks now, so you can’t imagine that I can have any impact on the performance of the car that will be running in 15 days. That’s not true, but what I can do because of my experience, because of what I’ve done over the last 30 years, is to bring a particular state of mind to the race, where it’s a perpetual improvement, we must always try to do better tomorrow than today, to always be in that mentality. And after that, the impact that I would have on the car will be more in the medium or long term, on setting up some processes, on setting up some people, an organization, but that will contribute to the 2024 car certainly.
Charles Leclerc started in Formula 1 with you at Alfa Romeo in 2018, there were some nice moments, some good results together, how would you describe your relationship?
Fred Vasseur: We’re close because I’ve been following Charles since karting. We’ve known each other for about ten years, after a stint at ART in F3, he started in F1 at Sauber. We have always been close, it’s an advantage for me because I know him well, it’s an advantage for him because he knows me well too, now we are in a system where we can’t have favored drivers. There won’t be any, because we have a very clear objective which is to win, and to win with Ferrari, not to win with one or the other. What makes our short term interest today is to give the best equipment to both drivers, to give them all the means to do a good job. But if at some point in the season we need to push one driver more than the other to win a championship, I will take that decision without any problem.
Last year the level of performance was good, even very good at the beginning of the year. There were some strategy mistakes that were very visible, very commented, is that your main work for your first weeks here?
Fred Vasseur: No, there were a lot of problems, but there are problems in any team, where my job as a team leader is to improve performance. Even when you are in a dominant situation, you have to find the weak points of the organization and improve them. The team didn’t wait for me to work on them and to try to find solutions. I hope that the engines in particular are under control and I hope that with the strategy we will do a much better job in the future.
You succeeded Mattia Binotto, in soccer when you change coaches, it’s because the results were not satisfactory and the new one must do better than the previous one, last year Ferrari finished second in the driver and constructor championship. So for you to do better is necessarily the title, there is no other choice?
Fred Vasseur: Independently of doing better, I’m not going to enter into a comparison phase with Mattia because it’s not the subject at all, the team’s objective, it’s very clear, is to be constructor and driver champion, no doubt about it, I think that when you’re at Ferrari, you can’t have any other objective than to win, and that’s clear to everyone and we say it all day long, then at the end of the season. If it was a good season, we will have time to discuss it.
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