Ex-Haas charger Romain Grosjean says that achieving success with Ferrari will be huge challenge for Frédéric Vasseur but if there's one man who "can do it" it's the former Alfa Romeo team boss.
Last week, Ferrari confirmed Vasseur's appointment as the successor to Mattia Binotto at the helm of the Scuderia.
Many pundits view the 54-year-old Frenchman as the right operator for the job given his vast experience in team and driver management.
Only time will tell if Vasseur can leverage on the potential it showed in 2022 and iron the creases that undermined far too often the Italian outfit's operations on race day.
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Grosjean admits that managing the Scuderia is "a huge challenge for anyone" but that Vasseur "can do it".
"He and Leclerc are very close friends and this helps the environment, but he also knows Sainz well," Grosjean said, speaking to Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Indeed, in 2016 Leclerc won the GP3 Series with ART Grand Prix, the outfit founded by Vasseur, while the Monegasque spent his first formative year in F1 with Sauber-Alfa Romeo, working under the Frenchman's guidance.
But Grosjean is also well acquainted with the new Scuderia boss, having raced under orders Vasseur's orders at ART Grand Prix in the 2008 GP2 Series.
The Andretti Autosport IndyCar driver is therefore well-placed to judge the pragmatic and no-nonsense team boss.
"I won the 2007 F3 in his team and we worked together for a long time,” Grosjean said.
"Frederic Vasseur is a born competitor, he understands racing like few others. And above all, I’ve never met a better technician to understand us pilots. It’s as if he were a pilot himself."
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