Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur says the Scuderia must focus on improving "every single topic and every single pillar" of its performance in the second half of its season while extracting the most from its current package.
After finishing second behind Red Bull in last year's Constructors' championship, Ferrari ambitioned to give the Milton Keynes-based outfit a proper run for its money this season.
But that objective was called into question from the outset of the Italian outfit's 2023 campaign as it realized its SF-23 contender was no match for Red Bull's dominant RB19.
Worse, Ferrari is still struggling to remain in contention for a spot on the podium in F1's Constructors' standings, having so far been outscored by both Mercedes and Aston Martin.
Vasseur knows that Ferrari will never make up its massive 312-point deficit to Red Bull in the championship, but the Frenchman insists the team can – and must – address the deficiencies that exist in "every single pillar of performance".
"For sure, if you look at the numbers, it's quite difficult to imagine that we could be champion on the team and driver championship [this year]," Vasseur said, speaking ahead of the resumption of its season at Zandvoort next weekend.
"But we need to keep the same mindset to try to get the best on everything that we can and not to be focussed on the championship.
"We have to improve the package, but we also have to improve what we are doing on track and to try to get the best from the package that we have. It's clear we have to be focussed.
"But I don't want to fix a target to say that we have do 'this' or 'this'. As long as we have room for improvement, we have to put some focus on this.
"It's clear that on every single topic and every single pillar of the performance, we have to make a step forward."
As part of its efforts to return to the front of the field, Ferrari has initiated a recruitment spree.
After losing its head of vehicle concept David Sanchez to McLaren and parting ways with its racing director, AlphaTauri-bound Laurent Mekies, the Scuderia has signed up Mercedes performance director Loic Serra.
©Ferrari
However, the French engineer won't pass through the gates of Maranello until 2025.
"We have some people that will be joining us in a couple of months, some other people will be starting at Ferrari on January 1st next year, others on July 1st next year and some will start at the beginning of 2025," Vasseur explained.
"It’s a very long-term process and somehow it’s a little bit frustrating because you have the feeling that the results of your work will only be there in two or three years from today.
"But, on the other hand, if you don’t start this process you’ll never get to the end of it."
Despite the lengthy waiting times associated with its recruitment process, Vasseur assured that Ferrari is "moving forward" and won't push back its basic targets.
"I’ll never accept that we have to wait for these guys to get an improvement because I also trust the guys we have in the team.
"We need to improve but we can also do a better job with what we have today, so we have to be focused on trying to get the best out of what we have: that’s the next challenge and I’m sure we have a lot of room for improvement, with the current situation.
"I don’t want to postpone any target, because that would be the wrong message, the wrong motivation and, at the end, it’s a never-ending process.
"It’s not because we have three, five or 10 people in the next 18 months that we’ll completely change the philosophy and the potential of the team."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
