“We have to stay calm”: Vasseur takes stock at Ferrari

Frédéric Vasseur's debut at Ferrari was not a smooth ride. There Team is seriously behind its competitors at the end of the first two Grands Prix of the season. After Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the Italian team is only the 4th force in the field from an accounting point of view, already 61 points behind Red Bull. If the pace in the race is not at the level of the best, reliability is also worrying: after abandoning in Sakhir, Charles Leclerc has already suffered an engine penalty in Jeddah.

No podium in two races, a 4th place as best result: obviously, the results are far from glorious at Ferrari. Far from being alarmist, Frédéric Vasseur tries to calm things down around his team, the target of numerous criticisms. “In this situation we have to think about the team and how to improve the situation. I think we also need to stay calm, it’s not like everything is bad”, declared the French director, who is targeting the main weaknesses of the SF-23 at the start of the season. 

« In Saudi Arabia, we made good improvements compared to Bahrain, at least on the spot pace, and we widened the gap a little with our competitors, not with Red Bull, but with Aston Martin et Mercedes. I think the problem [during the race] was more related to the pace with the hard tire. »

Vasseur wants to work harder at Ferraru

Three months after his arrival in Maranello, Frédéric Vasseur experienced an eventful start to his adventure. Between the poor performances of the Scuderia, the reliability problems and the first reshuffles in the workforce (promotion of Ravin Jain among the strategists, David Sanchez leaves McLaren), the Frenchman remains straight in his boots and wants to impose his paw to get back into the fight.

“We have to focus on ourselves, we know when we are weak and we have to improve on that. We'll see what happens when we take a decent step. If you start thinking about what the future potential could be with development, you are lost, underlines the former director ofAlfa Romeo. We know we have to improve. This is the DNA of our sport, not only because of the current situation, but we know we have to work. We will continue and you can be sure that in the morning [after the race], I will be in the office and I will work hard”

Before going to Melbourne, Australia, the boss of the Scuderia announces some minor developments to come on the SF-23, even if he believes that the main problem lies in the operation of the current package. “We are not able to extract 100% of the potential from our car in every session. We need to focus on this before thinking about developments. » 

ALSO READ > Aston Martin, 2nd force in the field? “You have to be careful,” replies Mike Krack