2023 has been a two-faced season for Ferrari. The first was almost desolate, because since the tests in Bahrain it had become clear that the SF-23 was far from the performance of the Red Bulls, but also of other opponents such as Aston Martin and Mercedes.
The second part, however, offered a more lively, competitive Red car, capable of winning a race – the only one not signed by an RB19 – and coming close to second place in the Constructors' World Championship after a comeback of almost 70 points made in the compared to Mercedes.
Frédéric Vasseur was in his first year at the helm of the Maranello Scuderia and, in this case too, the arrival of a new commander also involves some changes in the organization chart. According to the French manager, however, it was not so much these changes, but a more aggressive attitude in reaction, in operations on the track and in the factory that revived Ferrari's season.
“We have already changed some people but I don't like to name names, I never have and I never will. In the end, it's not about one person, including myself, the most important thing is the work group that we have, I'm proud of the reaction the team had during the season, everyone, including the drivers, we were able to react after six difficult months and starting from Monza we saw the results.”
“Then we know that in an organization there are always some individual changes to be made and we are doing that, we are hiring a lot, but we know the Formula 1 system. At the beginning there is a sort of huge inertia due to the contracts in place.”
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari
“When you realize you have a problem that requires hiring, we know that a new person who joins the team will have to respect twelve months of gardening, six months' notice and, after this period, can only be active on the project of the following year. So from the moment you need a person to the moment they become operational, there is a risk that two to three years will pass.”
“So I think the most important point for us was the improvement in our approach and mentality. I think in the end we took more risks and were able to be a little more aggressive.”
Vasseur then went into more detail regarding the moment of difficulty suffered by Ferrari in the first 8-10 races. He spoke about the gap that separated the SF-23s from the RB19s lap after lap, but also what had changed from August onwards on the Reds and in the team that turned a black season into a possible springboard to return to fighting for victories and titles in 2024.
“When we said we were in a difficult situation at the beginning, we were probably two or three tenths behind,” he explained.
“We have taken a step forward by one or two tenths. Now the grid is so compact and narrow that for one or two tenths you can completely change the appearance of the weekend.”
“In Japan we made an improvement, but it wasn't big. I'm still convinced that it's more on the functioning of the track that we made the step in the last third of the season, much more than on the development of the car.”
“In the last part of the season we were much more aggressive. And it's a question of tenths. You recover 0.020s here and 0.020s there and in the end it's a tenth.”
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