Vasseur urges Ferrari to stay focused and learn from current challenges
Jun.18 - "All employees" will help to pull Ferrari out of its current situation, according to new team boss Frederic Vasseur.
After qualifying second to last with a key upgrade package in Barcelona recently, Charles Leclerc lost his cool with the Maranello team when he failed to make Q3 yet again in Canada.
"This is not the first time that we mess up like this," he told the media. "And this time it was really easy to interpret the situation correctly," Leclerc added, referring to the tyre choice mistake.
"Everyone could see how the situation was developing. I told my people on the radio and asked for slick tyres.
"And then they only gave me slicks when it started to rain heavily again. Why does this keep happening to us?" he said, exasperated.
Vasseur admits Ferrari still has work to do - both with the car, and the way the team is handling situations like the tyre choice in Montreal.
"When I arrived, the car was already parked there, in the workshop," the Frenchman told L'Equipe. "So, I focused first on the track.
"I detected some weaknesses which we try to correct. That was the first objective. We are now starting to work on the car," he added.
Some believe Ferrari should already be completely writing off the 2023 campaign in order to make things right for next year.
Vasseur warns that the team must not lose perspective.
"I have the advantage of coming from a team where a podium was a bit of an ultimate goal," he said, referring to Alfa Romeo-Sauber. "So I know how to put things into perspective.
"Sure, a podium for Ferrari is not enough. When you are here or at Mercedes or Red Bull, the objective is to win. And clearly, we are not achieving the objective today.
"But I try to make everyone understand that it is the job of all our employees to work for victory. Performance comes from all employees," Vasseur added.
As for whether the 2023 season and car should be completely written off, he said: "I don't think we should bet everything on next year.
"The 2024 cars will be very similar to this year's, so it's essentially that we fully understand this one to make the next one a success."
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It is hard to tell where Ferraris troubles stem from. Drivers seem up to the task. The pitwall has some glaring faults, stragedies are all over the place, knowing when to pit, tire choices. Car? hard to tell, since there are so mistakes being made to even really know. Team principle is being shut out, why hire him if they won’t listen to him? Maybe too much of an Italian culture?
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