Fred Vasseur has been signed to replace the outgoing Mattia Binotto as Ferrari’s Formula One boss for the 2023 season, the team confirmed Tuesday.
Vasseur, who has been Alfa Romeo team principal since 2017, was widely expected to take the job after Binotto and Ferrari confirmed their split following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He will inherit a competitive Ferrari car which won four races and claimed 12 pole positions with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in 2022 but fell well short of a title challenge.
Vasseur has been tasked with ending Ferrari’s championship drought — the team has not won a drivers’ title since Kimi Raikkonen’s in 2007 or a constructors’ title since 2008.
“I am truly delighted and honoured to take over the leadership of Scuderia Ferrari,” Vasseur said. “As someone who has always held a lifelong passion for motorsport, Ferrari has always represented the very pinnacle of the racing world to me. I look forward to working with the talented and truly passionate team in Maranello to honour the history and heritage of the Scuderia and deliver for our Tifosi around the world”.
The move reunites Vasseur with Ferrari’s superstar driver Leclerc after overseeing his rookie campaign at Alfa Romeo in 2018.
Leclerc had grown increasingly frustrated with Ferrari’s strategy under Binotto in the final races of 2022.
The move is a big step up the competitive order for Vasseur after a short stint as Renault boss in 2016 before six seasons at Alfa.
Alfa’s release confirming Vasseur’s departure was hugely complimentary of the job he has done.
“Progress on and off track was followed by a growing sense of confidence in Hinwil: confidence that this team could once again be at the sharp end of the grid; confidence that things would get better season after season; confidence that top talent would once again flourish in the sole reality of motorsport in the Zürcher Oberland. This all stemmed from Fred’s own sense of confidence: not in himself, but in the project that was presented to him in 2017 – a project in which he was one of the first to believe.
“Vasseur leaves a team bolstered by new partners, a growing workforce and with a bright future as the works team for a manufacturer in the not-too-far distance. He leaves as a friend, a mentor, a boss that could extract the best out of his charges: and, as we enter a new chapter of the history of our team, we will miss the smiles and jokes that would accompany him as he did the rounds in our Hinwil HQ.”
Vasseur is well respected within motor racing by drivers and rival team principals.
He and Nicholas Todt set up the ART Grand Prix team which won GP2 championships with Nico Rosberg in 2005 and Lewis Hamilton in 2006.
Source: www.espn.com