23/08/2023
NEWS STORY
In a wide-ranging media call, Frederic Vasseur talks updates, the 2022 budget cap, Massa's legal challenge, Carlos Sainz and much more.
As Max Noble rightly points out, whilst Mercedes is tearing itself apart at being runner-up to Red Bull, Ferrari appears to celebrate the merest hint of a podium finish.
Ahead of the second half of the season, as the Scuderia is eyeing an ailing Aston Martin, an ever-improving McLaren appears to be coming up on the inside rail.
Ahead of this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix, team boss, Frederic Vasseur gave members of the media an update.
Other than reliability, driver errors, poor strategic calls and the usual tendency to rescue defeat from the face of victory, Ferrari is struggling with a car that appears to change not so much track to track but session to session.
Indeed, Vasseur admits that the SF23 has a myriad of issues.
"I'm convinced that we have to improve everywhere rather than just on one topic," he said. "We are speaking about tenths, not about seconds, and we show on some occasions that we are able to fight with Red Bull at least in qualifying.
"It means the potential of the car is there and we have to understand why we are a bit less performance in the race and try to improve in these conditions.
"It's not a matter of car concept or anything like this," he insisted, when asked about the gap to Red Bull, "I think they're performing in every single pillar of the performance, drivers, chassis, engine, aerodynamics, suspension, strategy, and that's why we have to improve.
"It would be a mistake to think, 'OK, they are much better than us in this area, let's go for a full push on this one'. We have to try and get the best out of what we have in every single area, and to do small steps everywhere.
"For sure we're not getting the results we were expecting," he admitted, "and that means like every other single team on the grid we need to be on continuously improving mind-set. We are recruiting a lot, we have already made some internal reorganisations and we are moving forward.
"If you look at the first twelve races, it has been really up and down, really tight, and that means that just because you didn't get the results you were expecting that everything is wrong.
"The most difficult part of the job is understanding what's going well and what is going wrong, and where we can improve.
"I don't want to say, and I'm really convinced that it's not the case, that something is missing," he insisted. "The team spirit is there, the passion is there, the budget we are okay, the facilities we are okay, although we always have to improve facilities.
"If you think you are at the level then you are dead," he added. "It means that every single week, you have to improve everywhere on every single topic, and this is the mind-set.
"It's where I want to push the team, to never be happy with what you have, to always try to get something better, and to try to improve. If you start to say 'I am okay', you are dead.
"We are recruiting," he continued, "we are recruiting a lot, we're trying to get that last couple of tenths we are missing today, but we are in the middle of the process and it is, in fact, a never ending process.
Revealing that some of those new recruits will arrive "in a couple of months", the Frenchman adds "we have people starting in the company on the first of January '24, some July '24, some the beginning of '25.
"It's a bit frustrating because you have the feeling you are working for two or three years from today. On the other side, if you don't start to do it, you will never get it. That means that we have to push on.
"We have made a good step forward. We have had good recruitment. We just need to be efficient, to choose the right people, to take time to understand where we are weak, where we have to improve, and to take the good ones with a good project."
Asked about Felipe Massa's legal challenge in terms of the 2008 title, the Frenchman said: "As you can imagine I don't want to make any comment on this matter. I have a good relationship with all the stakeholders of this story and it's quite tricky.
"For sure the circumstances were completely exceptional," he added. "More generally, and not about Felipe, I think we are also trying to push the FIA to know the result of the event at the chequered flag.
"For sure it will be strange," said in terms of the original result being overturned. "I'm not a big fan to change the result of the race 15 minutes after the chequered flag."
In terms of the results of the 2022 budget cap, the Frenchman said that according to the FIA the findings will be announced early next month and that he has full faith in the governing body to announce its findings at that time.
Revealing that Robert Schwartzman will drive the SF-23 in the opening sessions at Zandvoort and Abu Dhabi - replacing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc respectively - Vasseur said that there remains 18 months on the Spaniard's current contract and that the team is "fully aligned" with the driver and his management team.