Ferrari, what to do to win? The knots to untie for new team principal Fred Vasseur

Formula 1 reignites its engines and is ready to return to the track on March 5th with the Bahrain GP, the first official race of the 2023 season. A season that will start early and will see the longest World Championship ever, with 23 Grands Prix and the curiosity about the returns of the Las Vegas GP at night and the Qatar GP after a year long pause.

But the biggest curiosity, especially for Ferrari fans, is to see what the Rossa will do, whether it will manage to undermine or even break the Red Bull domination. There is so much anticipation for this new SF-23 single-seater on which the old technical management had pinned so many hopes. Management that has now been entrusted to new team principal Frédéric Vasseur.

Proving you are not an outsider

'If you can't beat them, make friends with them'? The task of turning around Ferrari's fortunes and getting it to overtake Red Bull, and not just come close like last year, in Maranello's plans was actually to be carried out by Christian Horner, team principal and 'wizard' of rivals, who in an interview with Motor und Sport recently revealed that he had received an offer from the Redhead to fill Mattia Binotto's vacant post but had turned it down. 

Five constructors' championships and six drivers' championships speak for themselves for the longest-serving team principal in F1 history with 18 seasons behind him. Horner does not have to prove anything to anyone, nor does he have any desire to enrich his career with other experiences, as he is a king at home and is treated as such: "I feel loyalty towards Red Bull and of course towards the people who work here. When you work with such a fantastic team, why should you go anywhere else?" he said. 

In short, thanks but no thanks. Horner also rather bluntly denied the rumours about a sensational move of Mattia Binotto himself to Red Bull:"'I don't see what role he could have here. Obviously last year was difficult for him at Ferrari. Maybe he will have opportunities at some team further down the grid."

It is clear that the former Ferrari team principal's poor work on the track last year, with completely wrong strategic choices, was also noticed by his opponents, as well as by Charles Leclerc and the fans who even opened petitions to remove him from the driving seat. In the end, even Ferrari realised this and, having taken Horner's no for an answer, fell back on Vasseur.

Studying the car

The Frenchman, after this interview, will not be happy to hear that he was Ferrari's Plan B, but the new team principal will have much more serious things to think about. The new SF-23 is in fact a project born of Mattia Binotto's technical structure, and the French engineer can only hope that the old team's ideas, drawings and tests were correct. On his own he can try to optimise the car, perhaps with a few modifications, and above all strategically plan the races much more carefully than last year.

After all, the F1-75, the single-seater of 2012, was a competitive car that only had some reliability problems and missing downforce. This SF-23 in Maranello's plans was supposed to be the final evolution, so much so that towards the end of the season Ferrari decided to stop the improvements on the 2022 single-seater to concentrate on the new model, especially on the use of tyres, so much criticised in the old single-seater.

Fitting in with the environment

Vasseur will also have to rely heavily on the support of racing director Laurent Mekies, without seeking full powers which, as an outsider, he would hardly be allowed to have. In fact, it has not escaped anyone's notice that he was framed as 'team principal' and 'general manager' while Binotto was 'managing director', so he had more powers and possibilities to do and undo within the organisational chart, while Vasseur will be a track man.

It is no coincidence that there have been many meetings between the two, but it has to be seen how Mekies will have taken the Frenchman's arrival, as he was hoping for a promotion from deputy to Binotto. It is precisely this substantial difference in duties between the new and old team principal, however, that should allow more power at Maranello to the ad Benedetto Vigna, who together with John Elkann shared the choice of the Draveil engineer but is now anxious to see the results.

However, Vasseur said he has no problem with sharing management with an ad-manager, but he made it clear in an interview with RacingNews365 that he will decide for himself how to take the team forward: "The situation is clear, the team is a part of the great organisation that is Ferrari. There is a managing director, but it is not a new situation for me: even last year in Sauber I had to refer to the president of the group, you will always have a boss. But I will have the delegation to lead the team, and I will do it as I want."

Avoiding jealousies

Another problem for Vasseur could come from driver management. Ferrari is indeed fortunate to have two good drivers, both of whom are good equally, with no first or second choices, even if Leclerc starts a little ahead of his colleague Carlos Sainz. The Monegasque, by the way, has a contract expiring in 2024, and for certain malicious tongues the choice of the French engineer was also a bit of a sweetener for Charles, who finished the season furious at the pit strategy errors that penalised him. For him, in fact, it must also be his year of consecration, after five seasons at the Cavallino, and what better way than to have a team principal who knows him well at the pit wall?

The two have known each other since the Alfa Romeo days, his first F1 experience, and Charles has made it clear in interviews that he would be happy if Vasseur was chosen as team principal. This should give him the peace of mind that he already lacks in temperament and which was completely lacking last year due to mistakes that could have been avoided. But now it is up to him to show that he can take the next step, manage the race better, a bit like he did with the tyres at Abu Dhabi.

It is precisely the old friendship between the two, however, that could annoy Sainz, a driver who does not really like being relegated to second driver, so much so that in 2021 he finished ahead of his team-mate and last year, penalised by a single-seater that did not suit his driving style, he nevertheless proved intelligent enough to understand how to "tame" it, managing to find the right rhythm in the final. Sainz, who by the way had a very good relationship with Binotto unlike Charles, now finds himself suddenly catapulted into the opposite situation.