At the end of the 2022 season, it was clear that there needed to be some major changes at Ferrari, as they saw their title charge fall away after a catalogue of errors.
The Scuderia’s power unit proved to be one of the most unreliable on the grid, while the strategy team made error after error, costing the team a huge haul of points.
After some confusion over the security of his job, Mattia Binotto decided to resign from his role as Ferrari team principal, with the team quickly bringing in Alfa Romeo’s Fred Vasseur as his replacement.
The Frenchman has worked with Charles Leclerc before during his time with Sauber, leading fans to hope that 2023 could finally be the year that the Monegasque driver wins his maiden championship title.
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Former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has warned Vasseur that moving to Ferrari is a big step up, suggesting that he will need to deliver immediate results to be a success.
“He has won a lot in motorsport and has a lot of experience in leading a team, but leading Ferrari is something completely different,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“So in that sense it’s a big change for him as well.
“Time also doesn’t cooperate because it’s been years since Ferrari won a title. So there is enormous pressure on his shoulders.
“But he is very rational in his decisions and that is positive for Ferrari because sometimes there was too much indecision.
“If you look back at who did the best job at Ferrari in difficult times, it was Jean Todt – also a Frenchman. But even he got seven years to make it happen.”
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Vasseur will be pleased by the rumours that his team have reportedly made their 2023 car over a second quicker that last season’s, putting them in a strong position to be able to beat the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull on track.
The Frenchman has also claimed that the Scuderia have solved their reliability issues, meaning that they could be in with a real chance of winning the 2023 constructors’ championship.
With Mercedes and Red Bull also expected to be competitive this year, there could be as many as six drivers competing for the drivers’ championship, giving 2023 the potential to be one of the moist exciting years of F1 yet.