Ferrari have had a tough year with multiple poor finishes and almost no ability to answer the might of Red Bull to challenge for a championship run in 2023. The campaign has mostly been a reflection of the last two years. Ferrari has struggled to have any continued success to bring the team back into title fighting contention. After firing Mattia Binotto at the end of last season. The move led many to believe he was the issue. What fans soon found was that this was not the case.
The same issues that plagued Ferrari last year still seem to linger. Lack of performance, reliability issues and questionable strategy calls all seem to be playing a role. However, one man does not seem to be wavered by any of that. That man is team principal Frédéric Vasseur.
With Formula 1 teams enjoying some down time during the mid season break Leclerc took the opportunity to speak on the recent status at Ferrari and how the manufacturer needed to reset before their more recent return to the podium. Driver Charles Leclerc finished second in Austria, and third in Spa in the final Grand Prix before the summer break. Is this late success indicative of a turnaround point for Ferrari?
Frédéric Vasseur Speaks on the Status at Ferrari
In an interview with F1.com, Vasseur stated, ” “What we have to keep in mind is the whole pack is very tight. But if you have a look at McLaren, [in Hungary] they were at the top, [in Belgium] they were at the bottom, and it was the opposite for us. It means we have to continue to develop the car, continue to pay attention to details. Because for one or two tenths you can move from the bottom to the top and it’s a good lesson from the first part of the season.”
Also speaking to F1.com was Charles Leclerc. He stated, “Before the first race, the target was to do a step better compared to last year, which was to win the world championship. If we look at the first half of the year, we are very far from where we put our expectations before the season. So, on the other hand, as soon as we understood that we reset it and there was an incredible reaction from the team. They brought upgrades, sometimes a month and a half earlier, and this requires a lot of effort from everybody at Maranello. It helped us have great results.”
Leclerc Continued
“I think we still need to try to understand, because if I do a step back in the last two races, I think we expected to be much more competitive in Budapest than on a track like here [at Spa] and at the end, it’s the opposite…these are things that we need to look at because maybe we haven’t optimized the package in races like Budapest, and maybe we’ve done something that was surprisingly good on a track like [at Spa]. It’s good, anyway, to finish on a positive note the first part of the season and now we will take the time of the summer break, or at least whenever the guys can work again, to try to analyze those two last races and hopefully maximize the package at all races for the second half of the season.”