Charles Leclerc believes that Fred Vasser can return Ferrari to the correct path to success with his medium and long-term plans with the Scuderia.
Vasseur joined the Italian squad amidst difficult circumstances, tasked with addressing a series of underlying weaknesses at the team.
Poor strategy, reliability issues and – especially in the second half of the season – limited race pace became a significant problem for Ferrari.
The SF-23 project was intended to resolve the weaknesses that prevented the team from sustaining a season-long battle with Red Bull for the Championship.
Mattia Binotto even confirmed last year that Ferrari switched its focus to the SF-23 after the French GP, making an early commitment for the second iteration of these regulations.
However, improving on some quite blatant operational issues (demonstrated most clearly in Monaco and Hungary) was also a key area for Vasseur to rectify upon his appointment.
Speaking after Ferrari’s first clean weekend of 2023, Charles Leclerc is confident that the Scuderia’s team principal is capable of leading the team to success:
“Well, I think he’s just starting this process now. Until now, he was basically trying to analyse the situation as quickly as possible in order to do the best changes possible for the future.
“So yeah, I think the big part of the job will be done from now on, so we will see.
“Obviously, I speak a lot with Fréd, and I know what are his middle and long-term plans for the team, and I’m completely behind him, and I trust him fully.
“So I’m sure these are the right choices, and it goes in the right direction for the team. So for that, I’m looking forward to it. But yeah, let’s wait and see.”
It was never realistic to expect Vasseur to make large-scale changes immediately after joining Ferrari, but a reshuffling of senior personnel is now taking place.
The departures of David Sanchez and Laurent Mekies are examples of the evolving situation in Maranello, with Vasseur sculpting a team to his liking.
With only four races complete in 2023, there is plenty of time to observe the on-track and off-track changes taking place at the Scuderia.
