Not long before Fred Vasseur was appointed Ferrari’s new team principal, the car manufacturer’s CEO Benedetto Vigna said: “I am not satisfied with second place because second is first of the losers.”
And from the very outset, therein lies the essence of the problem for Mattia Binotto’s successor in the toughest job in Formula 1.
Ferrari expectation is huge and all too often optimistically misplaced, bearing in mind the team has won just one drivers’ title since the last of Michael Schumacher’s in 2004.
The pressure on Vasseur at the helm is enormous from day one: from the tifosi (the Italian team’s legions of fans), from the Italian media and, primarily, from the Ferrari hierarchy.
It was Vigna and chairman John Elkann who effectively got rid of Binotto despite him having brought back an element of success to the former giant.
If anything, the Italian was undone by both Ferrari’s strong start to the season and Red Bull’s initial underperformance. It skewed the reality of where Ferrari actually are in real terms, from a lowly sixth-best team in 2020 to relative stability and an admirable runners-up spot.
Unlike with other teams, Vigna and Elkann very much call the shots. If you look at Red Bull and Mercedes, Christian Horner and Toto Wolff have relative autonomy to run their teams as they see fit.
There was no suggestion, for example, that Wolff was facing an exit after Mercedes got the new technical regulations so wrong and the Austrian pointed out Ferrari team principals are “treated with brutality”. He has seen four different incumbents at the prancing horse already during his F1 stint.
Vasseur knows the reality is that his CEO and chair will be directing proceedings and he will be at the whim of whether they see him as in vogue or not.
Balancing the politics of it all is one of the first major challenges Vasseur should overcome. As their first combined appointment, he does however have an element of sway to begin with and would do well to have a buffer between him and the senior management.
The last time the team probably had that in Jean Todt to the technical whizz Ross Brawn, they enjoyed their most unprecedented run of success with Schumacher. Give Vasseur the freedom to run the people beneath him rather than having to perpetually manage up will get the best results, although habitually this has not been the Ferrari way.
The other issue is that Ferrari have often elevated their new team principal from within. Binotto had 30 years experience of the team before taking the top job so understood the complex machinations of a team that does not necessarily function in the same way as the rest of the F1 grid. Getting to grips with that will be a primary challenge for his successor.
What Vasseur does brilliantly is get the collective working well for him. He is a good man-manager for his overall staff, not just his drivers.
But the driver issue is one he will have to manage. Carlos Sainz may be wary of his appointment. It was Vasseur who gave Charles Leclerc his debut in F1 at Alfa Romeo and it is clear the Monagesque is his preferred choice.
But he would do well to tell Sainz there is no No1 and No2, and he has as open a shot at going for race wins and titles – should he have the car at his disposal – as Leclerc.
The other thing Vasseur needs to get a handle on is the team’s strategising. There were notable moments in 2022 when they made the wrong calls or pitstop errors. That has to be addressed to become a serious and consistent force. And then there is the matter of reliability.
But above all, the 54-year-old needs time and support. Too often, a Ferrari team boss is axed at the first real sign of a setback. Vasseur needs time to get his structures in place as he did with Alfa Romeo, turning them from backmarkers to the middle of the grid.
Vigna and Elkann will do well to remember in the tougher times that potentially lie ahead that’s why they came calling for him in the first place.
