While going to Ferrari, Frédéric Vasseur has an obligation to succeed

Fifteen years that the legendary Maranello company has been seeking a new crown.

After two difficult seasons in 2020 and 2021, Mattia Binotto was able to turn the Italian brand around and lead them to victory last year, without winning the Formula 1 World Championship. However, this was not enough for the brand’s executives, John Elkann and Benedetto Vigna, who lacked patience and ejected the Italian from his position. Despite this, they could have given him one more year at the helm of Ferrari.

Instead, the Scuderia will now do without Binotto’s services for one simple reason: to win the championship again, and right away. These statements were already made by Vigna back in 2022: “We’ve made progress and I’m satisfied with that. But I’m not satisfied with second place. However, I believe the team has what it takes to improve over time.”

The “builder” settles in Maranello.

It is clear that the newcomer, Frédéric Vasseur, can only aim for P1 in the championship this year. He, who calls himself a “builder”, will not have the right to take the time to adjust to life at the top of the grid. Any result other than first place will be considered a failure in the eyes of the top bosses. It’s an immense pressure that he must take on from the outset, since Monday, January 9th, the date of his official arrival at Maranello’s premises.

First day of work in Maranello 🏎️

Benvenuto Fred 🤗 pic.twitter.com/zpuh6Uu2oa

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) January 9, 2023

In 2022, the team managed to start off in the best possible way before it all collapsed, mainly due to strategic errors and internal mishaps that hindered performance and quickly overshadowed the goal of winning the title. From this standpoint, Vasseur, being the perfectionist he is, will have to obtain results right from the first races and rectify what went wrong last year. Each underperformance will be a factor in questioning his position by Ferrari’s executives.

What appears to some as a poisoned gift to the former director of Alfa Romeo can also have several reasons for satisfaction. He is joining a team that has been continuously climbing in the rankings for the past three years, even recording their best season last year since their second-place finish in the 2019 season.

Binotto sees no other strategy than to progress step by step.

Vasseur now has a team with a more stable structure, as Mattia Binotto has successfully improved the collaboration between different departments of the Scuderia to help maximize its potential. The team has also continued to improve the reliability of its engine during the winter in order to extract performance in the best possible way and enhance its top speed, an area in which Red Bull had a clear advantage in 2022.

Recently asked about what needed to be done differently at Scuderia to triumph again, Mattia Binotto replied: “I don’t believe there’s anything different to do.”

« I think it’s simply about continuing our journey while constantly improving, step by step, focusing on each race. There is no miracle solution, so I don’t believe we need to change. We have proven that we are doing a good job. It’s just a matter of getting there gradually, getting used to it, and whatever the outcome of the 2022 season, we’ll try to be ready for 2023.

From now on, Frédéric Vasseur will be in charge of improving the current Ferrari team. He will have to make sure that the solid foundation stands strong in the fight for the world titles from the beginning to the end of the season.