Frédéric Vasseur: “Guarantees on the choices that are made”

What do you expect from the last seven rounds?

What I would especially like is to end the season by fighting with McLaren et Renault. Next year will be a big year of technological transition and the 2020 cars will be an extension of this year's models for everyone. If we finish 2019 on a good note, we will be on track for a great 2020 season.

Did you have in mind an ideal progression curve for the team when entering the home stretch of the championship?

Last year over the season, in terms of performance, we were at a 2,6% deficit on average and we are now at 1,6%. We are already down 1%; which for me is the revealing element. These figures provide us with guarantees on the choices that are made.

As the overall manager of the company, I can only focus on factors like these. The place in the championship is necessarily a reward, but it depends too much on the driver to be a real barometer of competitiveness.

It's very tight in the middle of the table where we go from 9th to 5th from one weekend to the next. Being P5 in qualifying at Hockenheim (Germany. Editor's note) or having one or two cars in Q3 during the last six races is for me the sign of a good level of achievement.

The return of your technical director, Simone Resta, to Ferrari is it a hard blow?

No, the worst would have been if he didn't come at all. The major choices concerning the 2021 car were approved before its departure and wind tunnel testing began before the summer break. The main lines of the project having been approved, the choice of Jan Monchaux to replace him was obvious.

We are a team. I believe more in the power of the group than of the individual. It works well as it is, and I don't want to revolutionize everything by bringing in people from outside. Recruiting internally is a guarantee of continuity and I hope that we will keep the same progression curve for a long time to come.

Discover the full interview with Frédéric Vasseur and the full report of the Italian Grand Prix, carried out by our special correspondents in Monza, in issue 2233 of AUTOweekly, available now in digital version and on newsstands.