Ferrari Formula 1 team boss Frederic Vasseur has admitted he’s already feeling the added pressure of fan expectations – but he believes he can be positive for the team.
The Frenchman joined the Italian team earlier this year following the resignation of former team boss Mattia Binotto.
Outside of Ferrari, there is a widespread belief that politics can be quite fierce within the walls of the Maranello factory, which is why there has been such a high turnover among team principals in recent years. Ahead of his first race as team boss, however, Vasseur doesn’t think working at Ferrari is any harder than anywhere else.
“I don’t think it’s more difficult than with any other team,” he said when asked about his experience of dealing with politics within Ferrari. However, he admits that the pressure on the team comes from outside, which is unique due to the passionate tifosi.
Vasseur: “Passion is mega”
“What’s true is that the passion and enthusiasm around the team is mega. When we kicked off two weeks ago, there were thousands of tifosi behind the fence and I’m not sure if that’s anywhere else in the world the case is.”
“The enthusiasm is everywhere – when you go to the hotel, you have fans and stuff like that. It’s kind of a pressure. The question now is, is it a good pressure, a kind of motivation and I accept that , or is it something that inhibits development?” Vasseur wonders.
“Honestly, I think it’s a positive. When you do something like that, you want this one [Druck] have. You can’t do a show or a sport and try not to be exposed. We know very well that in Formula 1 there are fans who have expectations and in Italy the pressure is probably a little higher than elsewhere. But so far it’s fine.”
How Vasseur Ferrari wants to turn inside out
Vasseur has spent his first few weeks as Ferrari team boss understanding the company’s strengths and weaknesses. He has already made some changes, such as restructuring the strategy team after the mistakes of 2022.
And while he is determined to make the improvements Ferrari needs to win the title, he believes it would be wrong to change things just for their own sake: “We have to approach it with humility,” he says about his approach. “The team was second in the World Championship last year and I don’t need to come in and change everything.”
“We have to take it step by step. I have tons of things to digest in the last few weeks. We will make small changes in the next few weeks because we have to improve. But this has nothing to do with Fred Vasseur or Ferrari. It’s them DNA of our business.”
“If someone on the starting lineup is happy with what they’re doing, they’re dead. That means we have them [die Probleme] always have to put it on the table and try to do a better job at the next race.”
“I think we have to try to get the best out of the people we have in the factory. It’s not just about the parts that you can see on the track, it’s also about what we do in the factory to to improve every single area, because that’s where the performance comes from.”