Vasseur: “It’s important for Ferrari not to have a first and second driver”

The truth is that unlike the Michael Schumacher era with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari does not have a suitably dominant personality in either of its two cockpits. Perhaps the main reason is that none of them went to Maranello as world champions like in the past Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel.

Leclerc emerged from the Scuderia academy, while Sainz was recruited from McLaren as a fast, experienced top driver – but has yet to claim a first win.

Mattia Binotto’s selection of this duo was a marked departure from the team’s tradition of always attracting the absolute stars and multi-champions of each era.

In addition, the fact that neither Leclerc nor Saint have established themselves as the undisputed leaders of the team over the past two years – and especially over the past year when the new technical rulebook was implemented – also played an important role. The Monegasque made two serious mistakes, at Imola and at Paul Ricard, while it took the Spaniard several races to finally bring last year’s Ferrari F1-75 up to his standards.

Should the new Ferrari prove capable of winning, the balance sheet for the team and its new manager Frédéric Wasser will be very difficult. Possibly playing into that tally are transfer paraphilology – over Leclerc’s tentative agreement to replace Hamilton at Mercedes going forward – and Vasseur’s recent push for Ferrari to extend the Monegasque’s contract beyond 2025 as soon as possible.

But that’s background known only to the protagonists of the Scuderia, and for the Leclerc-Saints balance we can only rely on the words of Vasser himself – who has opened up for the first time on the tactics he used in this one Matter will follow into the new season from March 5, 2023 with the Bahrain GP.

In his words, Vasser seems to insist on the team’s neutrality towards its two drivers – a neutrality Binotto was heavily criticized for in 2022. However, the Frenchman made it clear that he would not hesitate to give the anointing (priority to the team) to either of the two if the circumstances required it.

That is, if either Saints or Leclerc have a significant points advantage and thus greater hopes of Ferrari’s first drivers’ title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.

“I think it’s the same everywhere, we have two very good drivers and they can both do the job”said Vasser specifically. “We will have the momentum to give them exactly the same car, structure and support. It is clear that the goal is victory Ferrari, there will be no No1 and No2 drivers.

But if at some point we have to act, I will act. It doesn’t matter if it’s one or the other, if I have to do something at some point in the league, I’ll do it.”he added.

Presumably also to calm last year’s demand from many in Formula 1 – possibly also in Maranello – that Leclerc should be prioritised, Vasseur has now woven the eulogy for Carlos Sainz: “You probably know that we started discussions with Carlos and Carlos’s managers when I was with renault, to get him to sign a contract for 2017 or later.

After all, he came a little later, and when I was there clean I tried again to extract his signature, this time to no avail. So I thought, ‘Okay, if I want to approach Carlos, I’d best go to the group he’s in!’ We’ve always had a very good relationship. I trust him and I think he’s shown in the last two years that he can win.”stressed the Frenchman.

Finally, however, he underlined his original position again: “But it’s very important for the team not to have a first and second driver. Our organization is perfectly clear, but they have to do their job. And if at some point I have to act for Carlos or Charles, I will.”