Frederic Vasseur the men and women of the Gestione Sportiva like it. There will be exceptions, of course, but in general technicians and mechanics appreciate his frank and direct way of doing things, which doesn’t leave you with the impression of “what he meant to say” and the feeling that he is being plotted behind your back.
Lately, however, the Italian public and especially the media like Vasseur a little less. Even to those who hailed him as the man of providence just a few months ago. The Maranello team principal is experiencing on his own skin what happens to the head of GeS once the ‘gardening’ period is over, in which one tends to forgive something for the newcomer. Also because this term coincided with one of the lowest points, performance speaking, of the already not exciting Ferrari of recent years.
Too many triumphal announcements
Of course Fred has his responsibilities in all of this. In particular, he sinned with optimism in his utterances, when greater prudence would have been advisable. No more “leads favorable to us”, please: because there are none, and/or because the current level of performance unpredictability of the SF-23 does not allow reliable predictions. Vasseur is an experienced man in F1, but up until a few months ago he was part of that F1 that visibility must go after with results and initiatives, while in Ferrari visibility is a guaranteed and sometimes uncomfortable constant. But in the end, why did he expose himself to the media boomerang? For the same reason that many things in Ferrari today are not going as they should. In other words: Fred doesn’t ‘make’ the car and I don’t think he is always present at bench tests or in the simulator. For his impressions of him is based on what is reported to him. So on the eve of Hungary a ‘we can play’ has become, in fact, a boomerang (at critical height). For the same reason, which is rooted in the culture of many companies, the newcomer Vasseur was not told, or not clearly enough, that the 675 project had unbridgeable gaps. Basically the opposite of what happened with Andrea Stella at McLaren: that he won’t go on the podium in all the next races of the season, but he has turned the project upside down by sacrificing the first part of the championship. But what does “we have the wrong car” mean in a nutshell? It means that it’s wrong compared to the competition’s projections: if you scored two tenths you’re a genius, if the others scored eight, you’re not. And how are these projections obtained? Easy: from internal sources that each team has (the engineers talk to each other) and above all from new signings willing to tell what happened in their factories.
The long, the short and…
Let me cite an example: at the beginning of 2017, panic broke out in GeS. Wikileak, let’s call it that, had discovered that Mercedes, on the eve of a major regulatory revolution, would have deployed a particularly long car (they all are), while Ferrari had studied the relatively more compact SF70. The presidency at the time freaked out and tried to stop the leaks. Then someone who had nothing to do with it (your beloved) ventured at a certain point: sorry, but who told you that the short car goes slower? In the end, in fact, there were other problems, in the climb to the world championship. This year, however, the situation was different: on paper there was relative regulatory stability. In fact, however, someone had developed the ground effect areas far beyond the expectations of teams like Ferrari. But she realized it too late and too little, even at the tests in Bahrain. Incidentally, this hypothesis also explains the relative decline of Aston Martin: they had understood that there was potential to be exploited, but they arrived at the beginning of the year with a project already successful which today is struggling to benefit from developments. A bit like the 2022 Red, just to clarify.
The drafts in the corridors
Now Vasseur is called to the uncomfortable role of lightning rod, also because only he puts his face on TV. Nothing bad, he’s paid on purpose, but it’s still not clear why the Frenchman is the first TP in Maranello to answer to the managing director, Vigna, and not to report directly to the Presidency. Vasseur should also be supported from within and this does not always happen. I’m talking about the ventilated new arrival of Loïc Serra, ex Sauber and now Mercedes. Let’s say that the hypothesis is very plausible. Let’s also say that a technician with tire experience at the moment – which is next year – would be useful. But it is possible that every time a new name circulates, destined to ‘make noise’ in the words of the team principal, these rumors are captured by the sites? I don’t have it against the latter, who do their job: but the names of the incoming technicians often have an extremely limited circulation in GeS itself. Very few are aware of it, until an agreement is finalized which also involves structures outside the racing team. And these are things that are annoying, because when (for example) McLaren made an agreement with Rob Marshall, Newey’s right-hand man, he did things with much more discretion. Lastly, let’s not forget that Marco Adurno is already responsible for vehicle and simulator performance at Ferrari. Who perhaps would prefer certain news not to go around unchecked, at the risk of taking on ‘interpretations’ far removed from reality. In Ferrari there is one priority above all: and that is that the current staff continue to work calmly. Even so, sooner or later, the results will come.
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