Frederic Vasseur on the podium in Singapore — Photo: © LAT Images

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Ferrari chief reveals 2024 confidence after Mercedes F1 battle

The Frenchman is optimistic heading into the winter break

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 30 November 2023 10:57

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has insisted that the close battle with Mercedes in the constructors' championship will give them confidence heading into the 2024 Formula 1 season.

The Frenchman joined the team at the start of the year after Mattia Binotto resigned from his position off the back of a tumultuous 2022.

Whilst the team have regressed based on their 2022 performance by only winning one race and losing out to Mercedes in the battle for second in the constructors' championship, Vasseur has assured fans that Ferrari will be back to their best in 2024.

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The hope is that they can sustain more of a challenge to the dominant Red Bull team, and become regular race winners once more through their talented driver line-up of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Ferrari lost out to Mercedes in the battle for second in the constructors' championship

Charles Leclerc failed to win a race in 2023, despite claiming five pole positions

Carlos Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race in 2023

Ferrari looking to win races

Vasseur has now stated that there is no need to rip up the project that has been in place since his arrival at the team.

"In the next season the project will not be upset, many details in which we need to improve will have to be taken care of better," he told Tuttosport.

"In the last eight weekends we have done well and if we think about how far we were from Mercedes until a few months ago, the confidence for next year will grow.

"Being able to finish fighting with Red Bull is positive," he said, speaking about the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

"With Leclerc we let Perez go to close the gap with Russell for second place as constructors. We didn't succeed, but there were some very positive indications.

"We haven't always had a simple car to drive and this certainly created some problems in terms of confidence at the beginning of the season."

Red Bull Ferrari Mercedes Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz Fred Vasseur