«We aim for the World Cup, Leclerc and Sainz on equal terms»- Corriere.it

«After the first call from Ferrari, I spoke about it with my wife. She tells me: “Hurry up, go. What are you waiting for?” It is one of the most spontaneous passages of Fred Vasseur’s speech at the beginning of his mandate, the 54-year-old Frenchman, former Sauber, chosen by John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna to succeed in the mission failed by Domenicali, Mattiacci, Arrivabene and Binotto. Bring back the World Championship, the drivers’ one has been missing since 2007.

There was still Jean Todt in Maranello, compatriots spoke to each other a few days ago at a rally but «only the enthusiasm that reigns within the team now can be comparable to that of then. For the rest it is impossible to compare different eras. In a black sweater, like Sergio Marchionne with whom he closed business, he speaks in a large room that the mechanics use to practice pit stops, sketches a couple of sentences in our language. Then he apologizes and switches to English. «The first decision as team principal was to take Italian lessons».

He does them every day in the early morning, lives in a hotel but is looking for a home and a multilingual school for his fifteen-year-old son, the last of the four left in the family, near Paris. He has the opportunity of a lifetime, he must feel a bit like those coaches, with no trophies on their resume, called to manage United or Liverpool. A bet. He wants to risk it, he doesn’t hide, he couldn’t even: «My goal is not to get to Ferrari, but to win with Ferrari. If you are a tennis player you want Wimbledon, if like me you have been involved in racing for over 30 years you want to win with the most important team in the world».

There are no alternatives after the second places in 2022: «We are aiming for the drivers’ and constructors’ titles, these are the objectives of John and Benedetto». He has a direct and pragmatic style, he knows everyone and everything in the paddock, half of the riders on the grid have passed through teams he manages in the youth categories. He had Leclerc since karting and “if you know one from before it’s always better”

In these first few weeks he went to dinner and lunch with Charles and Carlos, separately or together: “To understand how certain things went in the past, there is no better point of view than that of a pilot”. It is said that Leclerc was his sponsor, in exchange for the status of first guide: «But that’s not true, only Ferrari is in first place. They start in the same conditions, then during the season we will see who is ahead and how to help them if needed. I don’t mind the rivalry at all, they have a very good relationship and I have explained my methods to them transparently. And I had tried to get Carlos, first at Renault and then at Sauber. He’s strong “. He is an engineer but considers himself an organizer, one who “knows how the mechanisms of a racing team work” even if he has never directed one so complex. «At Sauber there were former Ferraris. They told me: “There the impossible becomes possible”. Now I understand why, here they are capable of moving mountains”.

But the miracle will be up to him, who inherited the organization chart from Binotto together with the 2023 single-seater, already completed. Of which it is well said: «Now we only have data in hand and we need to be sure of the correlations with the track, we are waiting for Bahrain (winter tests from 23 to 25 February and the first GP, on 5 March
ed
)». But optimism prevails over caution, it’s a courageous way of presenting yourself, for those who have nothing to lose: «This group was able to get off to a very strong start last year and I was amazed by the desire to collaborate. There are some things to fix. The first was reliability, it seems under control now. The other concerns team spirit, I want to make sure that everyone pushes in the same direction».

For the role of technical coordinator, he trusts Enrico Cardile — «He has done a great job and will continue»— while there could be changes on the strategy soon. «It’s not a matter of an individual (Inaki Rueda is under discussion ed), but of the group behind it». It is the cautious but decisive approach of those who “sleep peacefully at night”. “Because if you can’t handle the pressure, it’s better to change jobs”. And Fred already has a lot of it.