Ferrari F1 boss Fred Vasseur says constant improvement is the only path to sustained success in F1, while complacency is the enemy of progress.
Formula 1’s competitive landscape has undergone a dramatic change in 2024. After two years of Red Bull dominance, the competition is finally heating up.
Ferrari’s second win of the season last weekend in Monaco, which was preceded by McLaren's surprise emergence in Miami and at Imola, has signaled a three-way battle for supremacy.
Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari are now separated by mere tenths of a second on track, with circuit characteristics and race execution playing a significant role in determining the victor.
Previously, the bulls held a clear advantage on smoother, high-downforce circuits where the team’s RB20 thrived while its rivals struggled for pace.
However, this comfortable margin has evaporated. Red Bull's car must now contend with an opposition on ‘normal’ circuits, but also with its own vulnerabilities on bumpy, less fast flowing tracks.
The tight spread up front in qualifying and on race day has ignited excitement among Ferrari and McLaren fans, and among these teams’ respective crews.
But as far as Vasseur is concerned, Ferrari’s focus shouldn’t be on celebrations but on the task at hand, on upholding its hard-won momentum and on maximizing efficiency and performance across all departments.
"If you start to think that you are in a good shape, you are dead," Vasseur said in a conversation with the Italian media this week.
"It means that we need to keep the same approach and to have continuous improvement, department by department, on every single area, including drivers, including the pit wall, including everything.
"Even when you are doing a good job, you have to do a better job the week after. If you start to be convinced that what you are doing is good, it's the beginning of the end. On every single area we have to push the boundaries a little bit more."
©Ferrari
Vasseur's message is clear – Ferrari's recent success is merely a step in the right direction, meaning the fight for glory in F1 is a marathon, not a sprint, and the Italian outfit must go the distance.
However, the Frenchman also emphasizes the importance of staying present and concentrating on each race weekend because of the highly competitive level of the current championship.
"It would be a mistake to think too much about the long-term future," Vasseur said. "We have a very enthusiastic [sic] championship with three teams fighting each other, with five or six cars able to fight for pole position.
"We know from one weekend to the next, you can move from P1 to P6, like what happened to Max [Verstappen] last weekend. And it would be a mistake, strategically speaking, to think about the end of the championship.
"We have to be focused on the next race, on Canada, on the development, to get the best from what we have and to do a good job and then [we'll see] what will come at the end."
Ferrari will head to Montreal next week boosted by Leclerc’s emphatic home triumph in Monaco. While Carlos Sainz’s win in Melbourne earlier this year came with the caveat of Verstappen’s misfortune, Leclerc’s achievement was somewhat of a statement win for the Monegasque and his team.
"For the team it's also confirmation of the fact that we are pushing in the right direction and this is giving the guys self-confidence," Vasseur acknowledged.
"I don't know if I have to be proud of something, but the good feeling is that at least I can feel the self-confidence in the team, the mood in the team and the capacity of taking risks.
"I think it could also help Charles on his own self-confidence, because he was waiting for the win in Monaco for years and he spent one year and a half without a win."
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