Fiorio: Ferrari needs to be more creative

Cesare Fiorio was sporting director of the Ferrari team from 1989 to 1991, and now he is already 84, but he still closely follows the Scuderia’s performance in the World Championship, rejoices in the individual successes, but worries about the continued failures. And Fiorio has his own opinion on how to correct the situation.

“The season was quite intense, but overall Ferrari confirmed that the team has excellent specialists, excellent mechanics, technicians and engineers, and this is a very valuable resource,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport. – Now we must return to the previous result level as quickly as possible.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are very fast drivers, but still made too many mistakes. Leclerc outperforms his teammate in qualifying, although the difference between them is only a fraction of a second. But Sainz is better able to organize the work over the distance of the entire Grand Prix.

I think extending Leclerc’s contract is the right decision because he is gradually improving, both in terms of speed and skill, making fewer and fewer mistakes, although he has been making too many mistakes lately. But that’s normal: Verstappen has made mistakes before. Charles becomes a more mature professional and acquires qualities that Max and Lewis Hamilton already have.”

Fiorio also assessed in his own way the work of Frederic Vasseur as head of the Scuderia: “Of course he is an excellent professional and knows his profession very well, also because he almost always held managerial positions.

It cannot be said that he has achieved excellent results in Formula 1, and overall it does not yet appear that he is doing better than Mattia Binotto. But still, he is a highly qualified professional, and we will see the real fruits of his labor in 2024.

It seems to me that there are now several teams behind Red Bull that perform at approximately the same level. But of course the dominance of Red Bull Racing is the biggest problem. However, in Formula 1 this has always been the case and periods of more or less clear dominance of one particular team alternated. But they never lasted forever.”

Speaking about the priorities Ferrari needs to address, the motorsport veteran stressed: “It seems to me that no measures are needed in the engine area. But as for aerodynamics, the problem of destabilization of cars in fast corners must be solved.

In addition, it is necessary to take a step forward in improving the work of the team strategists – we see that they make mistakes from time to time. It is necessary to achieve clearer and more coordinated actions from the racing team on the track, and not from that part of the team working at the base in Maranello. We need to be more creative and rely more on intuition, rather than reacting to the decisions other teams make.”