Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur says that the team’s sole priority is improving the current performance of its 2023 Formula 1 car rather than conducting contractual negotiations with its drivers.
The team’s current pairing of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc retain deals with the Scuderia through to the end of 2024, but both drivers have been recently linked with possible switches to rival teams.
Meanwhile, Italian media have repeatedly speculated that the Italian outfit could be lining up a blockbuster move for seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton – rumours Vasseur has categorically ruled out.
However, amid a challenging start to the latest campaign, the French chief says that Ferrari has problems it must solve elsewhere before it considers what the side’s driver line-up will look like beyond next season.
“I think you asked me the same question one week ago and I told you that, so far, we have enough to do with the development of the car, that we have a lot to do on the technical side, and we’ll speak about drivers a bit later,” he said ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
After the reports were subsequently played down by Ferrari, Hamilton, who finished Sunday’s race in second place, confirmed negotiations with Mercedes on a new deal could be finalised pretty swiftly.
While Mercedes leapt into second place in the Constructors’ Championship by scoring the first non-Red Bull double podium finish of the year, the revised package Ferrari introduced in Barcelona failed to mark a dramatic upturn in its fortunes.
With Leclerc out of the picture following a troubled qualifying, Ferrari’s race-day woes continued as Sainz dropped from the front row to fifth by the chequered flag.
Following Max Verstappen’s admission that Red Bull has the capacity to win every single race in 2023, Vasseur says the intensity of the F1 development race means he prefers to take each event as it comes.
“Honestly, that I’m taking the race one after one and I’m thinking about the next one that it’s difficult to predict where we’ll be in six month time in term of development and we have to be realistic,” he acknowledged.
“But you never know what could happen and you never know also what will be the right of development over the next couple of weeks or months. But let’s take the races one after one and to be focused on what we are doing on track.”
Despite Sainz beating both Aston Martins last Sunday, Leclerc’s torrid weekend meant Ferrari was unable to close on the Silverstone squad in the teams’ standings.
With Mercedes bringing two cars home inside the top three, the Scuderia already sit 52 points behind its German counterparts in the battle for second position.
Although Ferrari’s substantial upgrade package was unable to cure the consistency issues Ferrari has persistently battled in race trim throughout the 2023 season, Vasseur remains confident that its updated package produced a step in the right direction.
