Frederic Vasseur: Ferrari is on the right track

Frederic Vasseur took over the management of the Ferrari team in January this year. He had cars designed by Mattia Binotto and his engineers; it was too late to change anything in the design, but progress was made by the end of the season.

Frederic Vasseur: “It took me a while to get the hang of it. We have a large team, with separate chassis and engine departments, it is a very large organisation.

It was necessary to get to know everyone, to find out how the work was organized. The situation is much better now, but we still have a lot to do. We are moving forward step by step.

The problems that arose last season were related to the car’s handling, realizing its potential and its refinement. In the past, adjusting machines was much easier. Now there can be a huge difference between two different settings, which wasn’t the case before.

We need to build a car that is easier to drive, more stable and that doesn’t wear out tires as aggressively. We showed her speed potential in qualifying, but on the race distance she was inferior.

It’s a matter of fine-tuning. Sometimes two identical cars from the same team were separated by a second – this was the case with Mercedes and with us. It’s unusual. This suggests that the machines are working on the edge, and every little thing can influence whether its characteristics change in the right direction or not. This is what Red Bull does better than everyone else.

Red Bull was the first to stop developing the car, which means they will take a bigger step than the rest next year. In many respects we are talking about the controllability and stability of the car, which are very difficult to assess in a simulator.

I cannot be satisfied with last season, because we were too far behind in the spring. But I am happy with the way the team responded to the problems that arose and how we performed in the second half of the season. There is a feeling that we are on the right track.

We made no sudden movements, but moved step by step towards the goal. In short, we did our job. The team has great potential and that makes us optimistic.”