Change of Ferrari Team Principle
Mattia Binotto leaves Ferrari's Formula 1 team as team principal. His position has been under discussion for some time, partly due to a number of tactical misses in grands prix in 2022 season.
Ferrari started last season promisingly, but drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were soon unable to keep up with Max Verstappen (who again became world champion in his Red Bull car). That also had to do with wrong tactical choices and tire strategies that turned out wrong.
After Frederic Vasseur announced departure from Alfa Romeo, people have switched very quickly. As expected, Frederic Vasseur has been announced as Ferrari's new team principal. He is the successor of Mattia Binotto.
Fred Vasseur commented: “I am truly delighted and honoured to take over the leadership of Scuderia Ferrari as Team Principal. As someone who has always held a lifelong passion for motorsport, Ferrari has always represented the very pinnacle of the racing world to me. I look forward to working with the talented and truly passionate team in Maranello to honour the history and heritage of the Scuderia and deliver for our Tifosi around the world”.
Tire degradation and engine reliability
It was a nightmare for Ferrari in Bahrain. Although Carlos Sainz finished fourth and scored points for the top team, Charles Leclerc seemed to be able to secure a podium place behind the Red Bull drivers. Until fate struck, for the umpteenth time at Ferrari. Leclerc retired with engine problems.
Dropping out with a problem is of course always painful, but the Italian racing stable is extra sensitive after last Formula 1 season. After several failures in 2022, Ferrari promised to address the reliability problems and everyone was convinced that they had really been solved.
The winter break was all about increasing reliability and tackling all problems, so no one expected the problems at Leclerc. "We still don't really know what happened," says team boss Fred Vasseur in front of the microphone of the media, including RacingNews365. "There was a little problem before the race and we changed some parts."
Vasseur promises that measures will be taken and will investigate the outage. The brand new Ferrari team boss is of course very disappointed, because with one car that reached the finish in Sakhir, Ferrari is now behind Red Bull, Mercedes and Aston Martin in the World Cup standings. "We didn't expect this prior to the race."
"If I could outline the overall situation, I see that our qualifying speed is at the level of Red Bull, at least in Bahrain. That is still positive. Furthermore, we have to be realistic. If we want to improve ourselves, we have to be honest and accept that the reliability is not yet at the right level. We want to win races and then this cannot happen."
"If we look at tire wear, I think Charles could have finished third, although we are probably at the same level as Mercedes and Alonso and not at the level we want," said Vasseur.
Charles Leclerc frustrated with Ferrari Formula 1
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was left with mixed feelings after the Saudi Arabian GP. On the one hand, Leclerc was pleased that there was less tire wear than in Bahrain, on the other hand, he was not happy about losing his position to Lewis Hamilton.
“A good first stint and a good start,” Leclerc begins his race review. "We had good tire management on the soft compound, which was positive."
“On the hard compound I got within a second of Carlos, I got DRS. Then I lost DRS because you lose too much downforce when you ride within one or one and a half seconds. I stayed there for the rest of the race.”
During the race, however, Leclerc was frustrated when Hamilton pitted during the safety car phase and was informed too late by his race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros.
“Try to push from the first safety car line because Hamilton has just pitted,” his race engineer told him, but Leclerc responded in frustration with “Xavi, you have to tell me before, come on!”
"I thought we weren't competing with anyone else," Leclerc explained after the race. "So I tried to keep a bit of a gap to be able to push with the tire afterwards.”
Conclusion
Ferrari had great results in last season with second in driver championship and second in constructor championship. However, they had a chance at first place and blew it due to both team strategy and engine reliability. Ferrari has made several changes and restructuring of their Team Management resulting in the resignation of Mattia Binotto. They were able to resolve their engines issues and tire degradation at during last season, but has started this season with unknown issues. Charles is the one affected by this and has been frustrated about for the second season. Speculation are starting to grow if Charles will leave Ferrari at the end of his contract.
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