Vasseur: We have not discussed the terms of leaving Ferrari with Mekis

The day before, AlphaTauri announced that Ferrari’s current sporting director, Laurent Mekis, will replace Franz Tost as team principal at the end of the season. In Baku, Scuderia head Frederic Vasseur said he had not yet discussed the terms of his departure from the team with Mekis.

Frederic Vasseur: “First of all, this is a great opportunity for Laurent. Since I have a very good relationship with him, I will not interfere with his transition. However, in terms of timing, I think AlphaTauri was a bit aggressive in their press release. We have a long-term contract with Laurent and we just need to discuss the details.

For me, first of all, the interests of Ferrari are important – the interests of the team always come first. We will discuss the terms of his departure.

The loss of two people is not a problem for a company with more than a thousand employees. The strength of a team is more important than the strength of the individual members. We recruit many specialists, although we do not publicly disclose this fact.

We are moving forward step by step, because building an organization in two weeks is not possible. You know very well the recruitment system in Formula 1 – it’s a long and painful process, but I’m working on it.

Commenting on the rumors about Charles Leclerc’s possible departure from Ferrari, Vasseur said it was not yet time to negotiate a contract with the Monegask.

“We will discuss the contract later in the season,” says Ferrari’s head. – Until the end of Charles’s current contract with us for more than a year, so we have time to discuss everything. I am not afraid at all and just think that now is not the right time for such negotiations.

It is clear that Charles is part of our project. He participates in the development of the team, contributes both on and off the track. As long as Charles continues to play his part, we’re on the right track.

Usually, each team lines up around a rider. Looking back over 20 years, building a successful F1 team took time, but it was always a team built around someone.”