F1: Vasseur ‘not worried’ about Ferrari exodus

(GMM) Frederic Vasseur says he’s “not worried” about some high profile departures at Ferrari.

In the days between the opening Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs, Italian sources have reported about disarray behind the scenes in the wake of Mattia Binotto’s departure as team boss.

“There are people close to Binotto who preferred to leave,” new boss Vasseur told France’s Auto Hebdo. “I’m not worried about that.”

What he is more concerned about is the negative media coverage of his reign so far.

“I’m having a hard time understanding why the team became a target after just one race,” said the Frenchman.

As for the actual and rumoured staff departures, Vasseur said that’s just “inevitable” as a new era begins.

The bright side, he insists, is that the foundation of the 2023 car is sound.

“The correlation between the track and the simulation data is good,” Vasseur reports.

“I’ve told my people to fix any shortcomings in reliability and then focus on performance. It’s a long world championship.

“If we didn’t win the first race, you can’t then say that we are off course. Admittedly, Bahrain was not so good in some respects, but encouraging in others.”

He therefore played down suggestions a rumoured unhappy Charles Leclerc requested a private face-to-face meeting after Bahrain with Ferrari’s executive chairman John Elkann.

“We are aligned,” Vasseur said.

“After the winter tests, we spoke all together with Elkann and (CEO Benedetto) Vigna. We will meet again after Imola. These are scheduled meetings.

“I have no problems,” Vasseur added. “I know what I want to achieve and I hear from Elkann and Vigna every day. I know what they expect from me.”