Vasseur on Ferrari's 'unlucky' launch: 'A matter of downforce not the date'

“The pressure of the position I think is… I don’t want to say that it’s the same everywhere but it’s a different pressure,” Vasseur says. “When you are in some small teams sometimes it’s a matter of surviving, and this as a pressure is mega. When you know that the result of the last races will mean P10 or P11 or P9 and you will get the prize fund or not, I think it’s a mega pressure.

“I remember perfectly Brazil in 2016, when Manor finished P11 and they closed the door the day after, trust me in this kind of situation the pressure is also huge. At Ferrari what is different is the pressure is coming more from the outside, it is coming more from the tifosi. But this one was a positive one, I was very surprised with this.

“Monza was the beginning of the good part of the season for us but also the end of the tough one. We arrived in Monza not really in good shape after Zandvoort — it was probably one of the most difficult events of us — and the tifosi outside when we arrived on Wednesday were very, very supportive.

“You had guys without tickets waiting for the drivers, positive, always supportive, and this is giving you a mega energy. It was a very good feeling for me that all the weekend in Monza, until the podium… I did Monza perhaps 40 times in my life and this was by far the best one.”

Sitting around a huge circular table that is flanked by nearly 50 others — a set-up big enough to house the 2023 car as the focal point in the middle — he adds: “And also the pressure is coming from the press. When I did the same event in the past with a French team, I had six journalists! But this is OK.”

It would be easy for such a high-pressure situation to change Vasseur, and seriously impact his sense of humour or outlook on how he needs to go about his work. But he’s been keen to be accessible and to front up even when things go badly. giving off the impression that he felt Ferrari didn’t always explain matters very well when needed.

While that may well be what Vasseur was thinking originally, a year that started with difficulty but ended with improved consistency and multiple pole positions not only reflects a Ferrari that appears be reacting well to his leadership, but also one that doesn’t always panic when the pressure is cranked up.

“If we are doing a better job [next year] than this year [I’ll be satisfied] because the most important thing is to improve and to continue to improve. It means we have to a better job next year.

“The lesson is that everybody told me that you will see at Ferrari you will start the season very well and then it’s going downhill. Trust me, after Jeddah or Melbourne I said ‘What the f**k, if this was the good part of the season we will be in big trouble!’.

“But the lesson is that we were able to react and… The perception that you have from an external point of view of Ferrari is probably wrong. But when I was outside I was always thinking that the team will overreact to every single event, and the team was very, very calm after Melbourne. We were cautious of the situation and the weaknesses of the car but I think we had a good attitude to tackle it.

“We took it step-by-step and I think the reaction was a good one. I think it’s a good lesson that even when you are in trouble in our business you have to stay calm and to build up the pace step-by-step.”

From the summer break onwards, amid the resurgence of McLaren and some strong Mercedes performances, only Red Bull outscored Ferrari as a team, and that return came despite a disqualification and two failures to start a race.

There were still moments where old habits reared their head, but when viewed as a whole it was gradual progress through the year, and although that was perhaps overshadowed by what Aston Martin and McLaren did at different times, it was pragmatic progress from the start to the end.

Next year won’t begin so romantically, with Vasseur confirming that the new car will be launched a day earlier on Tuesday 13 February, a day that is viewed as unlucky in Spain. But the fear from the Spanish journalists present also got little consideration as the team principal’s pragmatism endured.

“In France, it’s Friday [13th that’s unlucky]. I don’t care about this, it’s a matter of downforce, it’s not a matter of the date of the month.”

With that, Vasseur made his way past Enzo Ferrari’s old farmhouse, across to the Gestione Sportiva and returned to work. He’ll have plenty of far tougher days ahead, but the fact he’s come through his first season — and one in which Ferrari actually ended up finishing one place lower than the year before — with his approach intact and reputation unharmed suggests he so far isn’t being hamstrung by the pressure, either.