When Mattia Binotto announced his resignation from his role as team principal of Ferrari, the team only had one replacement in mind: Fred Vasseur.
The Frenchman had been serving as team principal of Alfa Romeo, previously known as Sauber and has rightly earned himself a reputation for being a high quality and effective leader.
Vasseur will join Ferrari in the new year when Binotto’s resignation is made official and the Swiss departs the team, leaving the team’s new boss to lead pre-season preparations.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were massively hindered in 2022 by Ferrari’s unreliable power unit as well as the team’s tendency to make poor strategy calls and put their drivers out of contention for race wins.
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1978 champion Mario Andretti has discussed Ferrari’s hopes for 2023 and believes that the Scuderia will be competitive following the departure of Mattia Binotto.
“I don’t think they will come out of it badly, with Binotto’s departure,” said the American.
“In terms of minimising some of the mistakes they made, I think they have admitted that. From the drivers’ point of view, between Carlos and Charles they will be discussing some things that they won’t be able to repeat. It’s not unusual for this to happen to a team.
“Obviously things could be better, but everybody can pull themselves together and fix the problems.
“Sometimes you learn from mistakes and I have a lot of faith that Ferrari will be competitive for 2023.”
The Scuderia looked like the team to beat in the early stages of the season just gone, but Binotto revealed that the team had to tone down the output of their engine to try and solve their reliability issues.
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Charles Leclerc managed to split the two Red Bulls in the drivers’ championship after beating Sergio Perez in Abu Dhabi but has conceded that this means very little to him following an underwhelming year.
Andretti has suggested that Ferrari’s driver pairing is one of the best in Formula 1, leaving the team in a good position to challenge for the championship in 2023.
“Leclerc and Sainz complement each other well together and each is capable of winning, we have seen that already. Ferrari could be very strong in 2023 and be a real contender for the championship,” he claimed.