Vasseur: Driver confidence now 'at the center of Ferrari's priorities'

Fred Vasseur says Ferrari's priority in the short term is to instill confidence in its drivers by stabilizing the performance of its SF-23.

Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been vocal about the inconsistent behaviour of their car this season. Coupled with a lack of performance, the SF-23's characteristics made for a challenging start to the Scuderia's 2023 campaign.

An upgrade package introduced last month in Spain helped boost Ferrari's pace, but a significant degree of inconsistency remains embedded in the Italian outfit's machine.

Ironing out that instability and strengthening Leclerc and Sainz's confidence in their mount to fully exploit the car's performance improvements is now a priority for Ferrari's engineers.

"It wasn't just a question of pure performance, because something happened that affected the drivers' confidence in the car," explained Vasseur.

"When you enter a corner and you have a loss of load aerodynamic, it also causes a loss of balance. Therefore, you start to feel understeer. Add the wind, from one lap to the next which is never the same, and never has the same intensity, and the difficulties add up.

"We don't have performance stability. So lap after lap we lose a little performance from our drivers, because they never have the same conditions and they lose confidence in the car.

"We have to try to put the drivers more at the centre of our priorities. It isn't the easiest or even the fastest way [to progress] because it would be much easier to add downforce everywhere.

"But it happens that from one weekend to the next we have very different performances. We have good sensations in one Grand Prix while, in the next, it can happen that we do badly."

• Read also: Vasseur denies targeting Albon for Ferrari seat

Vasseur also underscored the importance of understanding how to best exploit a performance boost in terms of set-up, a process that Ferrari is still undergoing in the wake of its recent updates.

"Sometimes when you introduce a new package and you have little time to try it, you struggle to understand if you've used the wrong set-up," he said.

"Maybe you were expecting to earn a tenth and a half and then you lost one tenth because you didn't have the correct set-up.

"So once you introduce an update, it is essential to understand how it is exploited.

"Then there is also an impact related to the conditions, because we are still a little sensitive to the wind, especially when it's quite strong like at Silverstone, which reached 50 km/h".

"The car is too sensitive when there is a diagonal wind," Vasseur added. "We are working to try and improve in this area, because when the wind is head on we don't have any kind of difficulty."

The Frenchman is confident that Hungary's twisty lay out will provide Ferrari with an opportunity to shine next weekend, while Spa might also cater to the SF-23's qualities.

But once again, Vasseur says the wind go throw a spanner into the Scuderia's works.

"I can say that we go better in the slow corners and the 90-degree corners than in the longer corners," he said. "At least that's what we've seen so far.

"We can hope for a pole position, but I think the key factor could be the wind. Spa could also be a track that goes well with the characteristics of our single-seater. There is the Bus Stop chicane, and La Source, and there are only two high-speed corners."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter