2023-10-08 07:59:10
Doha (AFP) – Very ambitious at the start of the year, Scuderia Ferrari and its new French boss Frédéric Vasseur have had a disappointing season even if the improvement in recent weeks offers some notes of optimism for 2024.
Published on: 08/10/2023 – 09:59
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Second behind Red Bull last season in the ranking of teams, but also of drivers, with the Monegasque Charles Leclerc runner-up to the Dutchman Max Verstappen, the Italian team approached the new year with the desire to fight for the two titles which have eluded it since 2007 for the drivers (Kimi Räikkönen) and 2008 for the manufacturers.
Missed: Red Bull won the constructors’ title at the Japanese Grand Prix, and Max Verstappen was crowned on Saturday in Qatar, thanks to the retirement of his teammate Sergio Pérez during the sprint race.
The first weekends of the season had already been catastrophic for Ferrari, with two retirements for Leclerc during the first three races and only 26 points scored out of 132 possible after three events.
“The start of the season was difficult because the results were not what the team imagined,” Vasseur admitted to AFP before the Qatar Grand Prix.
“Excessive optimism”
Is the Scuderia season a failure? “Everyone is free to think what they want. There may have been an excess of optimism at the start of the year but I have to concentrate on what we do, on the ability to work, to to develop, to progress and that, I think, is rather good,” underlined the Ferrari boss.
If the results are well below expectations, Vasseur, who recognizes that mistakes were made, instead wants to retain the reaction capacity of his troops.
“We could have done better. We could have done differently. We let way too many points slip away. Not just the drivers, the whole team let way too many points go,” he conceded. from the AFP. “But the team reacted well after two difficult races at the start of the year. (…) There is always a real application to the work to be done, to resolving problems.”
Ferrari team boss Frédéric Vasseur in the paddock of the Lusail circuit, October 6, 2023 © Ben Stansall / AFP/Archives
And the pilots in all this? They sometimes seemed to have difficulty controlling a car that was too capricious and had to take a lot of risks to try to grab a few thousandths
“They did a good job overall. But I think the drivers also arrived, a bit like the team, with a level of expectation that did not correlate with the level of the car, so that forced at a certain moment to perhaps overdrive,” said Vasseur.
“I immediately understood that we couldn’t fight for the title. It’s not a situation I like to be in. But it’s part of the job and I’m 200% motivated to get back to the level of last year (…) and bring the team back to the forefront,” Leclerc told AFP before the Singapore GP, where the Scuderia ended Red Bull’s flawless run with victory by Sainz.
Reasons for hope
However, there are reasons for hope for the Scuderia, which has raised its head since the summer, like the success of Sainz or the good performance at home in Monza at the beginning of September, where the Ferraris had given the lead to deal with the untouchable Austrian single-seaters.
“Our car is still too sensitive to external parameters, which makes it difficult to drive,” admitted Vasseur. “But we have still made good progress on that. We still need to improve everywhere to get a few thousandths.”
The Ferrari driven by Monegasque Charles Leclerc during the qualifying session for the Qatar GP in Lusail, October 6, 2023 © Giuseppe CACACE / AFP/Archives
Furthermore, since his arrival, the French leader has quickly targeted sectors where the team needed to recruit to be even more competitive in the medium term.
“Fred amazed me (…), he was quick to adapt and understand where we needed to strengthen. And we are exactly in this process at the moment, but it takes time. in any case the direction is the right one. Now we need a little time,” judged Leclerc.
While waiting for the recruits, who will arrive in 2024 for some and in 2025 for others, the Scuderia wants to confirm its recovery and still has one objective this season: the runner-up place among the manufacturers. The fight with Mercedes, currently second, promises to be intense during the last races.
© 2023 AFP
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