In his first season as team manager, Frederic Vasseur is confident Ferrari can win the Formula 1 title.

Ferrari’s new team principal, Frederic Vasseur, has stated that the team must aim high and win its first Formula 1 title in 15 years.

Ferrari last won the Constructors’ Championship in 2008. Its most recent Drivers’ Championship victory occurred in 2007, and it came in a distant second to Red Bull Racing in the previous year.

Arriving from the Sauber-owned Alfa Romeo squad, Vasseur was chosen for 2023 to succeed Mattia Binotto, who announced his resignation following four years in command.

When you are in a great team, you can’t have another aim other than to win,” Vasseur stated in his first press conference as Ferrari’s team principal. Saying at the beginning of the season that you’re content with P2 would be unambitious.

Although Charles Leclerc placed second in the 2022 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship, he isn’t automatically the team’s top driver heading into the current year.

Although my experience is obviously limited to the last two weeks, I’m absolutely certain that we have everything it takes to win at Ferrari. We have everything we need to succeed, but we must work together to do well.

After a perplexing 2022 season, Vasseur has taken the helm at this team. After a few years in the wilderness, the car demonstrated remarkable speed in qualifying and went on to finish second in both championships, solidifying its position as a front-runner.

On the other side, it regularly made mistakes in the development fight against its competitors and failed miserably on race day due to driver errors, reliability issues, and strategy missteps.

Vasseur stated that his strategy is that “we always have to do a better job tomorrow than today,” but that it would be “arrogant” of him to implement changes right away without fully understanding the team. You should always approach situations with the perspective of “okay, where we can improve here, (what about) this area,” as it is a never-ending process. If you say, “Okay, today the team is in good shape, you are dead.”

Carlos Sainz, who placed fifth in the previous season’s F1 Drivers’ Standings, will have every chance to lead Ferrari this year.

The strategy team is facing external pressure, and Vasseur clarified that the structure will be assessed rather than focusing on any one person in particular—a subtle admission that there are flaws that need to be fixed.

You have to avoid being focused on the top of the pyramid when you are talking about strategic (teams), aerodynamic (teams), or another topic,” he stated. When discussing strategy, it is frequently more about organization than it is about the guy on the pit wall.

I’m attempting to ascertain precisely what went wrong with each and every error made the previous year, including whether it was a decision, an organizational issue, or a communication issue. Frequently, on the pit wall, there are more communication problems than individual ones. Perhaps too many people are talking about the same thing, and the car will be on the following lap! It’s a work in progress, but you need to have a clear flow of communication amongst the good individuals.

The key goal for improvement, Ferrari’s 2023-spec power unit reliability enhancements, he continued, “looks okay,” but the full extent of the advantages won’t be known until the car takes to the Bahraini circuit.

The drivers that finished second in the previous race, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, will continue to represent Ferrari in 2023. Vasseur has experience with both drivers; Sainz was recruited twice by Vasseur, the first time being while he was briefly head of Renault in 2016 and the second time being while he was at Sauber. Leclerc won the GP3 Series title for Vasseur’s junior ART squad in 2016 and raced for Sauber when he was team boss in 2018. Vasseur stressed that Ferrari will maintain its equality policy for as long as it makes sense.

Vasseur said, “I think it’s the same elsewhere in that we have two very excellent drivers that can do the task.” “We’ll be able to give them the exact same vehicle, the same setup, and the same assistance.