Francés, 55 years old, lives in Bologna and moves to Maranello to carry out his work, which also involves traveling for 24 weekends across four of the five continents. Frederic Vasseur is the boss of the Ferrari teamthe man who carries the responsibility of directing the most emblematic team in the Formula 1 and the legacy of Don Enzo. In times of turbulence, the president of the brand, the Italian-American John Elkann, made a turn and stopped rehearsing movements within the structure itself to discover outside the house at the head of the project that would return the shine and glory to the prancing Horse: He caught the Frenchman from Alfa Romeo and, with slow steps, the Scuderia shows progress that excites us with a promising future.
The recent victory in the Australian Grand Prix, the third date on the calendar, with a 1-2 that he led masterfully Carlos Sainz Jr. over Charles Leclerc, is a sign on the track of the progress of the SF-24 model, the machine with which the team competes against the power and favoritism of Red Bull Racing (RBR), dominator in the Constructors’ World Championship and with the three-time champion Max Verstappen as the flag.
Not continuing with the line of bosses who were contaminated by the atmosphere of Ferrari, in particular its political component, such as the predecessors Mattia Binotto, Maurizio Arrivabene, Marco Mattiacci or Stefano Domenicali, was the challenge that Elkann accepted. With Vasseur, a task of reorganization and relaunch began: the hiring of several engineers – in the first half of 2023 25 were added -, the division in leadership between the technical director of chassis -Enrico Cardile- and the technical director of the power unit -Enrico Gualtieri-; the departure to attend remotely from Maranello of the Spanish engineer and strategy leader Iñaki Rueda, who left the position on the circuits to Ravin Jain – an Indian engineer specializing in physics and mathematics, who was part of the working group of the predecessor of he-; the departure of race director Laurent Mekies, who joined RB (exAlpha Tauri)… were some of the decisions introduced by the new boss, a year ago.
Ferrari’s momentum can be minimal if only the results are considered, or encouraging if a projection is tried. On the one hand, The cars are the only ones that managed to beat RBR in 2023, and with the success on the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne, they once again broke Verstappen’s streak of consecutive successes – nine –; The bar could be lowered if the position in the 2022 Constructors’ World Championship, where it followed RBR, is compared to last year, where it was in third place, three points behind Mercedes. In the current course, with three great prizes, the Scuderia second gear, four points behind RBR.
The 1-2 of the recent weekend, however, does not intoxicate Vasseur. In 2022, Ferrari started the season by taking the podium in Bahrain – the victory went to Leclerc – although the result was a mirage. And to execute changes it takes time, a lot of time, in addition to not exceeding the budget limit, which leads to a penalty. “When we talk about F.1, people think that the problems can be solved in a week, but it is like sailing on a very big ship and establishing a change of course: it is not immediate. If we analyze the data from 2023, in qualifying we were 0.2, sometimes 0.4, behind Red Bull, but on some occasions we did better. The delta in a grand prix was much greater and the difference was manifested in the race pace. It is an aerodynamic issue: in a single lap the car was manageable, you can take risks and go to the limit. In the race it is impossible, because the car becomes unpredictable, it complicates the driver and performance drops,” Vasseur explained in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
The aggressiveness of the project was the direction that the Frenchman chose for 2024. Battling the fear of error is one of Vasseur’s requests to the team and translates into the importance of having winning drivers and a competitive car, but also that development and improvement packages appear before rivals. At the Suzuka circuit, where F.1 will retrace its next event, between April 5 and 7, the characteristics of the layout – the chain of curves – will highlight the virtues of the RBR cars, but Ferrari does not want to give up and A small aerodynamic evolution is expected and the debut of a floor with modifications. The SF24 model is the first conceptually to bear the seal of the Frenchman and the substantial differences are reflected in the chassis redesign –drawn by the Italian designer Fabio Montecchi-, which is 50 millimeters longer and the position of the engine and gearboxwhich now allows the car to be stable whether the fuel tank is full or almost empty.
“It’s too early to be too happy. “You have to have a meeting after each race, because it’s not easy,” says Vasseur, the man who reorganizes Ferrari and who in 2025 will meet again with an old acquaintance: Lewis Hamilton won the F.2, then GP2, and then GP2 championships. F.3, in 2005 and 2006, with the ART team, led by the Frenchman.