Ferrari Appoints Fred Vasseur As Formula One Team Principal
Frederic Vasseur will be taking charge of Ferrari at the beginning of 2023.
The 54-year-old Frenchman, who has been managing director of Alfa Romeo/Sauber since 2017, replaces Mattia Binotto, whom Ferrari said resigned last month.
Vasseur will be charged with transforming the Italian team into one capable of winning the world championship.
In 2022 Ferrari dissipated a car that started the year as the fastest because of operational and reliability issues.
Ferrari, chief executive officer of Benedetto Vigna said: “Throughout his career, Fred has successfully combined his technical strengths as a trained engineer with a consistent ability to bring out the best in his drivers and teams.
’’This approach and his leadership are what we need to push Ferrari forward with renewed energy.”
Vasseur, who will join Ferrari on 9th January, said he was “delighted and honoured” to take on the leadership of Ferrari.
’’As someone who has held a lifelong passion for motorsport, Ferrari has always represented the very pinnacle of the racing world to me,” he said.
“I look forward to working with the talented and truly passionate team in Maranello to honour the history and heritage of the Scuderia and deliver for our Tifosi around the world.”
Vasseur’s appointment marks a clean break from Ferrari’s strategy of choosing team principals over the last decade and a half.
Since Jean Todt, who masterminded the dominant Michael Schumacher era, left at the end of 2007, Ferrari has looked from within for the leaders of their F1 operations.
Vasseur also has a close relationship with Ferrari’s lead driver Charles Leclerc, whose growing frustrations with the way the team was operating in 2022 were transparent as his title challenge fell apart.
Vasseur ran Leclerc in GP3 in 2016 and Formula 2 in 2017, winning the title in both seasons.
Leclerc spoke of his admiration for Vasseur while accepting his trophy for second place in the championship at the FIA Gala in Bologna.
Vasseur’s key responsibility will be to ensure Ferrari’s race operations are improved so the team can avoid the sort of strategic errors that rocked Leclerc’s 2022 season.
BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma
