Red Mist: So, how is Fred really shaping up?

It’s been almost two years since Frederick Vasseur took over as Ferrari team manager, and if no news is good news, then he must be doing a pretty decent job. Or is that that lack of criticism because nobody really cares? Somehow I want to believe that the former applies. But…

Fred is the latest in a long line of Ferrari F1 team bosses since Enzo appointed Federico Giberti to run his effort back when the Formula 1 World Championship first commenced in 1950. Fred’s actually Ferrari’s twenty-third team manager. In, let’s call it seventy-five years of F1 racing. So that's, on average, just more than three years.

Giberti brought Ferrari its first world champion but lasted only two years before Nello Ugolini took over for a couple of seasons. And then Eraldo Sculati and Mino Amorotti took control for about a year each. Each of them also won a world championship for Drake. Then Romolo Tavoni was put in charge in ’58. He brought Maranello two more World Championships before becoming a part of Mrs. Ferrari’s palace revolt, just as he was orchestrating Phil Hill’s first cart in front of the horse title in ’61.

Back then, it seems that it took a manager no time at all to win titles. Eugenio Dragoni then led the team for three years alongside Mauro Forghieri on the technical side, finished what Dragoni had started in ‘61 and then also oversaw John Surtees’ ’64 title. A few barren years followed under Franco Lini in ’67 and then Ferrari’s last pre-Fiat era manager, Franco Gozzi, who oversaw the transformation that allowed Forghieiri to deliver many more race winners and almost take the ’70 title.

It continued apace under Ferrari’s first non-Italian manager Peter Schetty as Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni enjoyed two competitive seasons in 1971 and ’72. But it fell apart a bit under Alessandro Colombo the following year. Which prompted Ferrari to appoint the edgy Luca di Montezemolo to turn it around in 1974. He promptly managed Ferrari’s first world champion in a decade with Niki Lauda in 1975.

Luca was promoted up the ranks to leave Daniele Audetto, Roberto Nosetto, and Marco Piccinini to deliver a competitive patch with two more titles for Lauda and Scheckter. The priest Piccinini then steered Ferrari into the turbo era in a ten-year reign until 1988. Cesare Fiorio took over through the Prost and Mansell era, the Guildford years, and beyond with several race wins but no championships.

From where it all fell apart under Claudio Lombardi and Sante Ghedini. Montezemelo then came back to run Ferrari, stole Jean Todt from Peugeot in 1993, rebuilt, and then pilfered half of the world champion Benetton team at the end of ’96. The team put in four more years of good, hard graft to see Ferrari into its true golden years and Michael’s five great championships.

Todt then saw Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari’s final World Diver’s title before handing over to Stefano Domenicali. He was replaced by the anonymous Marco Mattiacci for a season in 2014 before the far more colourful Maurizio Arrivabene took over. Then engineer Mattia Binotto took charge and navigated the team through its disastrous fuel cheat era, which wasted Sebastian Vettel’s talent before his extreme mismanagement literally brought the great team to its knees.

It took blind management way too long to react, but when it did, it made the somewhat controversial choice of poaching Fred from Sauber. Possibly because he was a relatively known entity, maybe because Fred has a pretty calm, semi-fun management ethic. Has it worked?

Well, far from the early days when it seemed not to matter who managed or how the team was managed, the role has become increasingly crucial. And a far harder task to turn the corner. Looking back to Todt, it took him seven years to finally win a championship. Three to rebuild. And then four more, only after bringing the very best in the game together to build his dream team. And when they clicked, they were unstoppable.

In his two years at the helm, Fred seems to have brought calm and a degree of common sense to Ferrari. There’s a chance of the constructor’s title this year. But only because Red Bull has a clown in its second car. The team also finally capitulated this year.

But Fred’s plans are a bit of a concern. Todt kept Berger and Alboreto in the cars for three years until he pulled his coup. Bringing Schumacher, in the very prime of his career, Brawn, Byrne, and the rest together in an unqualified success.

Fred has let one of two brilliant young drivers go in a ploy that many believe has more to do with shifting merch, than to win races. If Todt was in charge now, who would he have brought? Yes, of course! Verstappen, Newey, and Horner.

Instead we have one guy well beyond his sell-by date who's become more famous for arriving at the track in clad in vomit-hued circus tents than actually achieving anything on track.

Look, Lewis’ previous record is impeccable. But his more recent form? Come on, man!

Or let me put it to you like this: Alain Prost was 41 in 1996. He’d been retired for three years. Michael Schumacher was 27 back then. The guy Ferrari that just signed will be 40 in January. Max Verstappen 27. So, is Ferrari really trying to emulate what it started to achieve in 1996? Or does it just want to sell a whole lot of 44 branded clothing? You tell me...

I hope I’m wrong, but I’d far rather have a guy with ten years of winning left in him racing for me than someone who’s actually living a mid-life nightmare.

Unless Fred has us all fooled. Time will tell...