Vasseur: 'No number one' driver at Ferrari, but performance comes first

New Ferrari team principal, Frederic Vasseur, has stated that his target for the upcoming Formula One season is to win the championship. Vasseur, who began his role on January 9th, has already begun analyzing the weaknesses that hindered Ferrari's campaign in 2022.

"When you are in a top team, you can't have another target than to win," said Vasseur. "You can't start the season saying you are happy with P2 - it would be a lack of ambition. We have everything to do a good job and the target has to be to win."

These comments contrast with the position taken by Vasseur's predecessor, Mattia Binotto, who resigned after the end of last season. Binotto repeatedly referenced the fact that Ferrari still needed to improve in order to be in a position to win the championship.

Ferrari's 2022 campaign was plagued by a series of failings, despite the team's stated objective of returning to competitiveness. Lead driver, Charles Leclerc, won two of the first three races, but took only one more victory as Ferrari was afflicted by engine reliability problems and strategy errors, as well as losing competitiveness as the season progressed.

"I am trying to understand exactly what happened on every single mistake last year and to try to know if it is a matter of decision, of organization, of communication," said Vasseur.

"Very often on the pit wall the biggest issue is more the communication and the number of people involved than the individuals."

Vasseur, who has 32 years of experience on the pit wall in various roles, including team principal of Alfa Romeo-Sauber and Renault in F1, believes that his experience can be useful to the team.

He stated that the team is working on their engine reliability issues from last year and that the first target is to fix it.

He added, "The performance of the engine was not an issue. The issue was reliability and the first target is to fix it."

On the subject of Ferrari progressively falling further behind Red Bull through last season, Vasseur said, "Development is very often a strategic choice with the cost cap to decide if you want to be more focused on the new car for the following season or the current one.

I was not there and don't want to make any judgements on what has happened in the past. But we will see during the season."

No Number One Driver, but Prioritization May be Necessary

Regarding Ferrari's drivers, Vasseur stated that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz would go into the season with equal status but emphasized that he would not hesitate to prioritize one driver if the circumstances demanded it. "We have two very good drivers who are both able to do the job.

"We will have the capacity to provide them exactly the same car and structure and support," he said." The target is to win for Ferrari.

"There will be no number one or two. But if at one stage I have to take action, I will take action. It doesn't matter if it is one or the other, if at one stage of the season, I have to do something, I will do it."

Leclerc's contract with the team lasts until the end of 2024, but rumors have already linked him with a move to Mercedes as a replacement for Lewis Hamilton.

"I don't want to discuss this now," said Vasseur, who has a strong connection with Leclerc, "it's not the ideal way to start off our collaboration."

"We have to be focused on the sporting side to get the results. It is like a wedding - if both sides of the table are happy with the situation, we will continue."

"It is not the priority today. We have a good relationship. We will have time to discuss about this."