Testing times for Vasseur, but the true challenge at Ferrari is about to come

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur always knew when he took on the job that it would test his management skills to the core. The passion and politics inside Maranello has never been easy for team principals to manoeuvre their way through, which explains the pretty high turnover of the men at the top in recent years. But if Vasseur was expecting a bit of a grace period while he got his feet under the desk, that has been shattered quite quickly as he found himself coming up against elements that he has probably not had to deal with before.

On the one hand, there is the technical challenge in having to find the answers needed to get the Prancing Horse cars closer to the might of the Red Bull machine that currently looks odds-on favourite for a dominant season. Plus, Vasseur has found himself having to plot his way through the minefield of politics and media speculation that have long been part and parcel of life at Ferrari. And in the wake of its defeat and reliability blow in Bahrain, the rumour mill has been in overdrive in suggesting that all is far from well inside the doors of the Gestione Sportiva.

Last week’s resignation of senior design engineer David Sanchez, which was not related to the Bahrain performance but came about because of an opportunity he has elsewhere, served as the catalyst for talk of potential mutiny inside Ferrari.

There were rumours in the media and on social platforms that Vasseur himself was not happy; that other staff, including racing director Laurent Mekies were looking for a way out, and that Charles Leclerc himself was concerned enough to order an emergency meeting with Ferrari chairman John Elkann. But not so, says Vasseur himself, who quickly dispelled the Chinese whispers this week ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP.

While the Frenchman insists the situation inside Maranello is much more serene than the gossip outside has suggested, that does not mean he is blind to the challenges ahead. What is going on outside Ferrari right now is but a sideshow to the real headache that Vasseur faces: getting his cars in front of Red Bull.

In the wake of its reliability blow in Bahrain, the Ferrari rumour mill has been in overdrive

Photo by: Ferrari

“I don't have to say that the press is fair or unfair,” he said about the whirlwind of speculation. “They are doing the job and they are doing the job as they want.

“The most important for me is to be focused on the team: to try to improve the situation, to get the best from what we have and to be focused on this. Honestly, my job is to understand what we have done in Bahrain good and wrong, and how we can do a step forward. I know perfectly that the situation sometimes is a bit difficult, it's a bit unfair, but it is like it is. The most important is to deliver on track.”

In terms of its on-track performance, Ferrari’s reliability and race pace in the Bahrain season-opener was a disappointment, as it proved that on a high-degradation rear limited track like Sakhir the SF-23 is far from being a match for Red Bull.

PLUS: The critical Red Bull tyre tactic Ferrari couldn't copy in Bahrain GP

But there is a glimmer of hope in the fact that Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were able to put the Red Bulls under a bit of pressure in qualifying, plus the way that there appears to have been a shift in the characteristics of the two cars’ strengths and weaknesses.

How Ferrari performs around Jeddah is such an important snapshot for understanding just how much potential it can have to take the fight to Red Bull over the course of the 2023 season

It is this area – the fact that Ferrari has moved more towards straightline speed than out-and-out cornering performance - that makes this weekend’s Saudi race a critical one for delivering indications over its potential for the year ahead.

Sure, Ferrari hasn’t made life easy for itself with Leclerc already facing his first grid penalty of the year, but this is a weekend where its overall performance around the streets of Jeddah will be far more critical to it than the final result.

Last year, time and again, it was Red Bull’s straightline speed advantage that helped Max Verstappen pretty much dictate things on Sundays.

Even starting behind Ferrari, the Dutchman’s top speed edge would give him a pretty swift route to the front, and then he was quite protected when it came to rivals not being able to draft past him in an era where the tow effect has been much reduced.

Vasseur singled tyre management out as the core reason to explain the deficit to Red Bull

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Ferrari accepted that aero efficiency was not ideal with last year’s challenger, so it set about changes for its 2023 car. Straightline speed data from Bahrain indicated that a combination of Ferrari’s improved power unit and low drag aero now meant it was the quickest car on the straight – although some of these gains have come at the cost of cornering performance and tyre life. With the car sliding more in the turns, tyre temperatures are higher and the thermal degradation, that is such a key aspect to performance, is much harder to manage.

After the Bahrain race, Vasseur singled tyre management out as the core reason to explain the deficit to Red Bull.

When asked by Autosport about if he had faith in Ferrari’s design concept: “I'm completely convinced about this. To match the pace of Red Bull [in qualifying] and to able to race, then it's a matter of set-up and some choices on the car. It's not a matter of concept at all. So we don't have to go into this direction.”

For Saudi, however, the characteristics of the Ferrari should be much better suited – as its long straights and track surface mean that managing the rear tyres is not the most critical element to performance. A good top speed, decent braking and a sharp balance through the medium speed sections are critical here, which are almost the perfect scenario for the current Ferrari.

That is why how Ferrari performs around Jeddah is such an important snapshot for understanding just how much potential it can have to take the fight to Red Bull over the course of the 2023 season.

If Red Bull cannot be beaten at the track whose characteristics are so much suited to where Ferrari has focused its performance, then what hope does it have at other venues that are better hunting grounds for Red Bull and even Aston Martin?

So it is Ferrari’s pace on track against Red Bull this weekend, rather than the soap opera that takes place off it, that will ultimately deliver the real verdict on the job the team, and Vasseur himself, is doing.

The Frenchman insists the situation inside Maranello is much more serene than the gossip outside has suggested

Photo by: Ferrari