Vasseur: Risk always there that Ferrari drivers can be poached

The Reds are having a woeful 2023 F1 season, like the rest of the grid, chasing the dominant Red Bulls, Max Verstappen in particular. As a result, Ferrari are fourth in the 2023 F1 Constructors' Championship and trail rampant leaders Red Bull by 199 points after eight rounds.

Last year Leclerc won the race at Red Bull Ring but this time around it is unlikely to be so as they have slipped down the pecking order, not only behind RBR but struggling to stay at the level of ever-improving Mercedes and a potent Aston Martin.

Leclerc has already alerted the team that without a race-winning package, he will be "forced to look elsewhere" for a team. While both he and Sainz have been 'linked' to Audi's new F1 project in 2026 with Sauber.

Of his drivers' future, Vasseur told Corriere della Sera: “There are 18 months left until the deadline. At this moment, introducing the contract renewal topic would be a distraction, I told their managers a couple of weeks ago. The priority is for the drivers to work together to develop the car. Then during the summer, or after, we'll start talking about it."

With not only Audi on stream but also maybe an extra F1 team or two, as well as retirements to come in the form of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the not-too-distant future (within five years one imagines) which would make Leclerc and Sainz high priority targets for top teams.

Vasseur is well aware that either driver could be poached: “That risk is always there. They are both attracted by the project, they want to stay and win. We have to think as a team and mature in every area. Talking only about drivers today would be wrong for the steps forward we have to make as a team."

Previous Ferrari TP Mattia Binotto was instrumental in signing Sainz, with some suggesting Leclerc is more Vasseur's man than is the Spaniard, which the team boss dispelled: "I am satisfied with Carlos, he is regular and gives important technical indications. With Charles, he forms a winning couple. I think he's very underrated."

As for convincing Leclerc to stay, Vasseur knows the score: "The best way is to give him a competitive car. He knows that every season is crucial to his career. He has one goal: to become a world champion. And winning the title is also our goal. We need to make both him and Carlos feel at the centre of the project.

"Carlos is fast and balanced, but like everyone else he has room for growth. Charles, on the other hand, is capable of doing magic in qualifying, of going further. But he sometimes goes beyond the limit always seeking the maximum even when the car cannot give it. He always wants to win, so he can make mistakes like at the beginning of the season. We've discussed it together."

Touching on the benchmark F1 driver of this era, already the Ferrari nemesis - Verstappen - Vasseur acknowledged: "Since he has become F1 world champion he almost never makes mistakes. The titles have given him a new level of security, for him, there is a before and an after..."

This year's Ferrari SF-23 probably began life mid-season last year. At the time Vasseur was the relatively low-key team boss of Ferrari customers Alfa Romeo (aka Sauber) long before Red was on his radar and Binotto well in charge.

Thus his French successor, six months into the job in the hottest seat in sport, cannot be blamed for the failings of this year's car at all. He is left picking up the pieces, on several fronts at the factory and beyond, while making the complex, at times faltering, Maranello machinations work collectively for the better of Ferrari.

Thus Vasseur would be excused if he pointed a finger at the source of the problem and those responsible for the woeful car that they rolled out this season, but he refrained to do so: "I don't feel like blaming anyone. Last year certain choices were made.

"From the first kilometres at Fiorano, and then in the tests in Bahrain, we understood that they weren't working. The simulations underestimated some negative effects on the behaviour of the car. So we were forced to look for a compromise between performance and driveability," revealed Vasseur of the crux of the team's problem with their current car.

Meanwhile, on the technical side, Ferrari allegedly opened the chequebook to lure super-talent to Maranello, with one nameless one heading there in the future according to Vasseur: “No names, it's part of a larger reinforcement plan. That's how things are in F1. Do you want a junior engineer? Arrives in 6 months. Do you want a senior one? At least 18 months are needed. This one, whom I consider a 'top guy', will work on the 2025 car."

As for taking Ferrari back to the top step of the podium on a regular basis, Vasseur reckoned the way to go is "progress faster than our rivals. It's time to accelerate, which is why we hire and invest in the future. I'm starting to see progress. Winning must always be the goal," concluded 55-year-old Vasseur.

Ferrari has not won a Grand Prix since Austria last year, and their title F1 constructors title drought continues since 2008 when Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen did the business for them. The Finn also won their last F1 driver's title in 2007.

At this stage of the season, 2023 F1 championship stats do not make good reading for the Tifosi ahead of Round 9 this weekend in Spielberg: