Vasseur will 'never accept' Ferrari needs new F1 hires to improve

The Scuderia has lost its highly-rated race director Laurent Mekies, who will join AlphaTauri as team principal. Meanwhile, head of vehicle concept David Sanchez has switched to McLaren.

Team boss Vasseur has moved to hire Mercedes performance director Loic Serra. However, contract lengths mean he will not officially join until 2025. 

Vassuer has said further announcements concerning signings will come soon but the former Renault and Sauber F1 chief says he will “never accept” that Ferrari's success is contingent on these newcomers.

Vasseur told select media ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix this weekend that he was “frustrated” due to the time taken to change a team’s fortunes: “[Recruitment] is a very long process.

“The consequence of this is that also the people joining sometimes in a couple of months - we have people starting in the company 1 January 2024, 1 July 2024, some will start the beginning of 2025 – is a very long-term process.

“Somehow, it's a bit frustrating also because you have the feeling that you are working for two to four years from today. But if you don't start to do it, you will never get it.

“It means we have to push on it. I think we made a good step forward.”

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari, in the team principals Press Conference

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

He added that even if the timelines were drawn out, Ferrari already had enough at its disposal and enough “trust” in its current staff to improve upon its current rank of fourth in the constructors’ points.

Vasseur said: “All the processes in F1 are quite long with a lot of inertia.

“When you want to work with people, you have to wait two or three years before to get to the result of this…

“But I will never accept that we have to wait for these guys to give an improvement because I also trust the people that we have in the team.

“We need to improve but we can do a better job with what we have today.

“We have to be focused to get the best from what we have. It’s the next challenge.

“I don’t want to postpone any target because this would be the wrong message, the wrong motivation.”

Vasseur noted that Ferrari’s approach would remain the same even when its new hires eventually join, saying there is no “before and after” when it comes to its working methods.