Vasseur to become new Ferrari team principal
According to F1-Insider.com a decision has been made. According to the report, Frédéric Vasseur is to become team boss at Ferrari.
Ralf Bach | 06 December 2022 , 21:52 hrs
The search has apparently come to an end. According to information from F1-Insider.com, a decision has been made in Maranello. According to this, Frédéric Vasseur (54) is to become the new team boss at Ferrari. He will succeed Mattia Binotto, who is stepping down from his post at the end of the year.
The announcement is expected before the end of the year. The Frenchman would then no longer be available for Audi. Background: the Ingolstadt-based company will join the former Sauber team (still Alfa Romeo), where Vasseur has been team principal since mid-2017, as a majority shareholder.
But Audi's frustration is likely to be limited. It is an open secret that the Ingolstadt-based company, which is developing its own drive unit for 2026 for the premier class of motor sport, wants to fill the chief posts in its future team with its own people anyway.
For the Frenchman Vasseur, the appointment to Maranello means both advancement and risk. After the resignation of Mattia Binotto shortly after the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi two and a half weeks ago, the Ferrari bosses around the grandson of former Fiat and Ferrari patriarch Gianni Agnelli, John Elkann (46), finally want to see the world championship title.
This year, the Scuderia came in second in the drivers' and constructors' championships. However, problems with the pit stops and the race strategy prevented more. This weakness cost Binotto his job.
Vasseur to remedy weaknesses
The Italian, who had been working in the Ferrari engine department since 1995 and had steadily worked his way up, was largely blamed for the mistakes. Vasseur is now supposed to remedy these weaknesses and lead Ferrari to its first title since 2008 (Constructors' World Championship).
That will not be easy. Because Ferrari insiders expect headwinds for Vasseur, especially from the inside. The biggest danger could come from Leclerc's manager Nicholas Todt. The son of former Ferrari team boss and FIA president Jean Todt founded the ART Grand Prix team together with Vasseur, which was extremely successful in the junior classes and with which Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hülkenberg, among others, won titles. But four years ago, the two partners fell out in a bitter dispute.
Vasseur, who began his Formula One career at Renault in 2016, will be Ferrari's fifth team principal since 2014 and now hopes his shelf life at Maranello will be longer than his predecessors Stefano Domenicali, Marco Mattiacci, Maurizio Arrivabene and finally Mattia Binotto. All of them failed because of the extremely high pressure to succeed that prevails at Ferrari.
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