Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur believes the team has fixed the “biggest part of the issue” from its 2023 Formula 1 car with its latest iteration, the SF-24.
Following both drivers’ calls for a more compliant package in 2024, Ferrari has outlined how it has attempted to create a “revamped” car that is “nicer to drive”.
While Vasseur admits that it won’t be until the team compares itself against the opposition in Bahrain that it will know if it has improved upon last season, he believes simulator work shows the new car is a more driveable machine.
“We were able to be quick in the last part of the season but the drivability of the car was an issue,” Vasseur told media including Motorsport Week.
“From the beginning of the 2024 project we were focused on this.
“Our feeling, and I think you spoke before with the drivers, is that we did a decent step forward in terms of drivability, but only Bahrain will let us know if it is enough or not.”
“At least on the simulator so far we fixed the biggest part of the issue.”
Vasseur enters his second season as Ferrari Team Principal, but the date of his appointment means the 2024 Ferrari is the first conceived under his whole guidance.
Despite this, he credits the creation of the SF-24 to the entirety of Ferrari personnel at Maranello.
“I think that the most important is to understand the car is the product of 1,000 people or a bit more,” Vasseur explained.
“It’s not the project of a single individual, it doesn’t matter who is the individual.
“I’m convinced that every single employee of Ferrari is a performance contributor.
“I’m trying to send this message each day. It’s not the product or Fred Vasseur or Enrico Cardile or anyone, the project is the project of the group.”
The results of this “project” are still to be determined, with pre-season and a record-breaking 24 race calendar ahead of the teams and drivers this season.
Therefore, Vasseur isn’t concerned with Ferrari hitting the ground running with an immediate result in Bahrain, where testing and the opening race takes place.
Instead, the Frenchman wants to see that his team has made positive progress upon an uptick in form toward the end of last season, which saw Carlos Sainz take victory in Singapore and Charles Leclerc challenge for the win in Las Vegas.
“Results is one thing, you never know, you can have a good pace and have a good shape and not score good points for different incidents,” Vasseur acknowledged.
“For me the most important thing in Bahrain is to be convinced that we are going in the right direction, that we didn’t lose something after the season last year, last year in Abu Dhabi we were able to fight for the pole position and we had a decent pace in the race, and we improved a lot in terms of operations, the capacity to take risks, the communication into the approach during the weekend and it’s quite important for me to stay in the path, now results will come with everything, but the most important is to go in the right direction.”
In 2025, Sainz is set to make way for Lewis Hamilton and the Italian outfit is also on an engineering recruitment drive in a bid to return to championship-winning ways.
One could be forgiven for thinking Ferrari has one eye on the future, but Vasseur dismissed any notion of that when asked if 2024 represented a transitionary period for the team.
“2024 won’t be a transition year, it’s quite important season for us, and I’m fully focused on this,” he concluded.
“The best way to prepare something is to do a good job, we are focused on 2024, we want to get the best, we want to win races, we want to continue on the path of 2023 and we won’t be at all thinking about 2025.”
