Charles Leclerc now identifies Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur’s two ‘very big strengths’

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Frederic Vasseur has made a considerable impact on Ferrari since his joined the team at the beginning of 2023.

The Frenchman replaced Mattia Binotto in a move that was considered knee-jerk by Ferrari’s senior management, following a series of poor results and bad reliability for the team.

Since Vasseur has taken over, Ferrari has got back to winning races and signed seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton to its driver lineup for 2025 and beyond.

Comparisons were drawn to Hamilton’s move to Ferrari similar to when he left McLaren to join Mercedes, after the Scuderia appeared to be in better shape than the Silver Arrows in 2023.

Ferrari took six poles in the last 11 races and achieved a race win at the Singapore Grand Prix, ending Max Verstappen’s dominant run of consecutive victories.

Charles Leclerc believes much of their success has been down to the shift in culture within the team. When speaking to BBC, he outlined how Vasseur has played a role in putting them back on the right track.

Charles Leclerc outlines Frederic Vasseur’s ‘two very big strengths’

Vasseur worked with Leclerc during his days at Sauber under its Alfa Romeo guise, where he was a key figure in the Monogasque’s development as a driver before he made the switch to Ferrari.

Leclerc believes two main strengths of Vasseur have enabled Ferrari to get back to winning ways and put them on course for challenging for their first championship since the 2008 season.

“Fred has two very big strengths which are very important in F1 and especially in a team like Ferrari,” said Leclerc.

“Whenever we have very difficult moments, he helps the team to be back at a reasonable level and not be too disappointed. And exactly the same when we win, to not be too high and bring us back down and tell everybody we’ve got to work because this is only one race.”

“What has helped us in the last year and a half is that we have had a very clear vision of what issues we want to address in order to be quicker.”

Ferrari progress overshadowed by upgrade problems

Much of Ferrari’s early progress at the beginning of the 2024 season has been overshadowed by the recent problems generated by their big upgrade brought to the Spanish Grand Prix.

While the upgrades worked as intended, the bouncing phenomenon that plighted the SF-23 appears to have returned and is affecting the drivability of the SF-24.

The team reverted to a previous specification of their car at Silverstone, but it has put them on the back foot just as Mercedes has started to get a handle of its car and McLaren appear to have overtaken Red Bull.

It is expected Ferrari will try to rectify their problems at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, while Vasseur believes the team must learn from Red Bull if they want to regularly challenge for race wins.