F1 | Vasseur: “Ferrari: a little more than 2023 won't be enough for me”

Frederic Vasseur granted SkySport an interview conducted by Carlo Vanzini on the eve of the start of the 2024 season, a very important step for Ferrari and obviously also for the Scuderia team principal. For Vasseur it will be the first season without a parachute.
“I will be satisfied if at the end of the season the team has achieved more than 2023”, but that 'more' cannot be just a 'little more'.

Twelve months after his arrival in Maranello, Vasseur is more in control of the situation. “The level of expectations last year was very, very high – he confessed – but already before going to Bahrain we saw in the first sessions on the simulator that it would be more difficult than expected”.

“Today the situation is different – ​​he continued – we undertook a long project ten months ago, with riders totally involved in following the development. I don't know if it will be enough in terms of lap time (to bother Red Bull), we'll get a first idea with the ranking of Friday's qualifying in Bahrain. But the most important thing is the ongoing process to improve many aspects, step by step, without drawing conclusions and without having too many expectations. I have the feeling that we are progressing, I don't know if we are doing it quickly enough yet but we are moving in the right direction.”

The Scuderia team principal did not want to shift the focus to the big announcement at the beginning of the year, namely Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari. But there was a small exception to the rule: “I think in the end it was a rather natural decision (for Hamilton) even though he was part of the McLaren family and subsequently the Mercedes one for a long period, I think he always knew where he would have liked to end his journey, at some point he had to come to Maranello. For our part, it makes absolute sense to have a driver with such great experience and such a prestigious list of awards, I believe that he can also be a point of reference for the development of the team in the long term.”

For Vasseur there will be no repercussions on Leclerc's morale, who in twelve months will find the most successful driver in the history of F1 at his side.
“I think Charles is an intelligent guy – he clarified – he immediately understood what he will have to gain and what he can learn from this collaboration, and he is seeing it as an opportunity”.

A final note concerns the decision not to reveal the duration of the contracts, both in the case of Leclerc and that of Hamilton: “We decided this simply to not provide information that could be useful to other teams.”