Vasseur: We took more risk, we were more aggressive

Vasseur took over from Mattia Binotto at the start of the 2023 Formula 1 season, the latter leaving, or pushed out, after too many missed opportunities in 2022, when Ferrari began the new era of "ground effect" cars with a decent package. If you are interested in betting we recommend our partners mostbet giris.

However, as 2022 progressed, the team and drivers made too many mistakes, which meant Max Verstappen and Red Bull walked away with both Titles after a brief challenge from Ferrari.

The start of 2023 was not a good one for Ferrari as the car, the SF-23 did not seem to be a strong package, and while it was rapid in qualifying, tyre wear plagued it on Sundays.

Vasseur had to work with what was available to him, and while the SF-23 was conceived way before he joined, he focused on organizational and operational changes within the team, while trying to change the mentality, something he insists helped Ferrari improve.

He said, quoted by Motorsport.com: "When you arrive in this group, you need to understand how the group is working before taking any action or decision.

"The main topic for us and the biggest improvement we did the season was more on the approach and the mentality. I think that we took more risk, we were a bit more aggressive and this played a part.

"We have to be ambitious and not be scared of any incident or something like this, and I think we did a step on this," the Frenchman insisted.

The Ferrari Team Principal insisted the car was improved as well, but the "compact" grid meant the effect of that progress was not always visible, while insisting that trackside operations made the difference.

He explained: "When we said that we were in a tough situation at the beginning, we were probably two or three tenths off.

"We made a step of one or two tenths. Now the grid is so compact and so tight that for one or two tenths you can change completely the physiognomy of the weekend.

"We brought an upgrade in Japan, but it was not a big one. I'm still convinced that it's more on the track operation that we did the step in the last third of the season, much more than on the development of the car.

"In the last part of the season we were much more aggressive. And it's a matter of tenths. You make up 0.020s here and 0.020s there and at the end, it's one tenth," Vasseur concluded.

Despite their tough season, Ferrari accumulated seven pole positions, five courtesy of Charles Leclerc and two from Carlos Sainz, the latter delivering the team's only win in the Singapore Grand Prix, the only non-Red Bull race win in 2023.