Vasseur must act, urges Nico Rosberg after Mexico
SF Press Office
Ferrari’s problems this season overshadow much of the good the team has achieved under Frédéric Vasseur. As we have said many times, in aerodynamic and mechanical terms, the engineers at Maranello have built a car that surpasses those produced by Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull. The problem is that neither the engine and strategy departments nor the drivers themselves have matched that standard.
Ferrari’s season could be summed up as a missed opportunity. No, even with a perfect year, the team would most likely not have beaten Mercedes. In fact, it is quite impressive that the Scuderia sits second with a substantial advantage over Red Bull and McLaren, largely thanks to a much more evenly matched and consistent driver line-up.
Paradoxically, however, it is that very driver pairing that has cost Ferrari so much. Individual mistakes, an unwillingness to cooperate, tactical failures and a toxic rivalry between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could cost the team the constructors’ title next year. This may therefore be their last chance to address it.
“It’s really Fred Vasseur; he needs to start to act,” said 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg on Sky. He is one of a host of drivers who raced for Fred’s ARG Grand Prix team in the junior categories.
“Because, as Lewis said, before the race, there was no discussion — like clear racing guidelines between the two, and it needs to happen,” the former Mercedes driver continued.
“Otherwise, it’s just going to keep going like this, and it gets really bad when the drivers take it in their own hands and disregard whatever’s being discussed and just take it in their own hands and sort it out on track and barge the other guy out of the way. “That can very quickly happen, and it’s already kind of happening,” said Rosberg.
As noted above, Fred Vasseur deserves credit for many things, but not for everything. The team was tactically unprepared in Mexico and, as Lewis Hamilton also pointed out, even if a common approach had been agreed before the race, he doubts Leclerc would have stuck to it.
“Even on that first wheel-to-wheel that they had in Turns 2 and 3, Charles was bouncing over the inside into Lewis. He was not holding the line, Charles. So already that was too much from Charles, so he messed up already there,” Rosberg pointed out.
