Vasseur: 2024 no transition year for Ferrari before Hamilton move

Inevitably, the signing of the seven-time world champion as a replacement for Carlos Sainz has suggested that Ferrari has its main focus on the future.

However Vasseur insists that this season remains the priority and that all efforts are being made to propel the team forward.

"No, this is wrong, 2024 won't be a transition year,” said the Frenchman. “It's a quite important season for us and I'm fully focussed on this.

“I think the best way to prepare something is to do a good job. It means that we are focussed on '24, we want to get the best, we want to win races, we want to continue on the path of 2023, and we won't be at all thinking about 2025."

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Ferrari

Since taking over the management reins at the start of last year, Vasseur has been making key appointments, some of which have yet to be made public. He says that the process of improving the team will never stop.

"I would say that by DNA, if you start to be happy with what you have, you are dead,” he said. “It means that you need to be always in the mindset of continuous improvement, to try to work on your weaknesses, and to try to step on some areas.

“And so it's a no-end project. For sure people are starting to join the team now, and this is good news. It's day after day, I think we are reinforcing the team, we are making steps.

“But again, it's not that tomorrow morning I will say now we are there, I'm happy with the situation. If you start to have this kind of approach, I think it's the beginning of the end."

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Vasseur is adamant that the combination of Sainz and Charles Leclerc will continue to drive the team forward in 2024.

“If you have a look at last year, we had a very positive evolution all over the season,” he said. “But we had some stages of the season when Charles was performing a bit more, when Carlos was performing a bit more.

“Into the recovery of the team, between the first part and the last part, I think the drivers played a decent role. We need to have this kind of evolution in a racing team. And we are there today.

“For sure, we want to have more, we want to push more, it's the DNA of our racing team. But honestly, I'm really convinced that we will have this kind of positive evolution again in '24. And this will be very helpful to continue to improve."