Leclerc: Vasseur is very emotionally flat

It is not an easy task to run a Formula 1 team like Ferrari. In fact, Vasseur's job is probably the toughest in the sport, being at the helm of the most famous F1 team, with so much history and even more expectations from the fans, especially the Italians, who regard the Scuderia as a national pride.

Vasseur took over from Mattia Binotto at the end of the 2022 F1 season, as Ferrari looked to change, hoping a new leader would bring Championship success to a team that has failed to win any F1 Title since 2008 when they claimed the Constructors' Championship. Their last Drivers' Title goes back to 2007, when Kimi Raikkonen triumphed for the Reds.

While Vasseur is yet to deliver Title success, Charles Leclerc, who won the 2024 Italian Grand Prix last week, insists his boss has brought in change to the culture at Maranello, which can be emotionally driven.

Leclerc told F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast about the culture change Vasseur is instilling: "It's quite a lot different. Ferrari is such a huge team with so much history that it's not the easiest of tasks to do something like this.

"I think there are some core values of Ferrari that will never change, and I think it also never has to change, because the value of passion is something that, to that extent, you will only find in Ferrari, and it's something that is absolutely incredible.

"At the same time, it can bite in some difficult moments because passion also means emotion, and sometimes when it goes very bad, it can affect more the people inside the team than in any other teams.

"But that will also bring the people to give 200 percent in order to do everything to get out of difficult moments for the team," he added.

"I think Fred has changed quite a few things, which made a really big difference," Leclerc continued. "First, to try and understand every single individual within the team, to try and understand the situation, and to put them in the best possible conditions in order to extract the maximum out of each individual.

"That is definitely one of the biggest strengths of Fred. The other thing is that I feel like he's always acting a bit like a balance in the team.

"Whenever you are having a really good race with Ferrari, everybody feels so good, so happy, and Fred is always the balance of saying: ‘Yeah, it's great, but now let's re-center a little bit because it's only one race and we've got many other races,’ and exactly the same in bad moments when everybody feels down, Fred is always there to give us the positives in a difficult situation to re-motivate everybody," the Monegasque explained.

"He's very emotionally flat, and that is a really good thing for a team like Ferrari. That’s what is needed in Ferrari, so I’m completely confident, and I have full trust in what Fred does," Leclerc concluded.