Why would Carlos Sainz worry about Charles Leclerc knowing the latest team principal at Ferrari? Wouldn’t Sainz be more at ease with the fact that, at least, there’s one person among the duo who is already at ease with the incoming team principal instead of feeling anxious and holding it in some sense against Charles Leclerc?
Truth be told, the world that surrounds Formula 1 doesn’t only restrict itself to the on-track live racing action; it tends to exist in the paraphernalia that happens off the grid.
At this very moment where several motorsport publications are running “feature stories” regarding Sainz feeling a touch insecure since Leclerc knows Fred Vasseur quite well given the two worked closely at Alfa Romeo before, truth is that Sainz might be feeling completely the opposite.
Surely, when you race for a team like Ferrari, you do have that added bit of pressure to perform; rather they expect you to outperform the entirety of the F1 grid.
But that doesn’t mean that a driver like Carlos Sainz would want to increase the enormity of pressure on himself by presuming things- as suggested by some Motorsport publications- such as Leclerc knowing Vasseur would help the Monegasque, while it could leave him out in the cold.
Fred Vasseur is known to be a balanced and rational individual, one of the fatherly figures so to speak in the realm of F1 and perhaps, someone who’d be clearly aware of the precious responsibility that becoming the chief of Ferrari’s F1 team entails.
Crash.net, among the few clear-thinking publications noted the following insights about Carlos Sainz and his impressions on the latest Ferrari development:
No [I’m not worried], because I don’t think I’m starting from scratch,” Sainz told Autosprint. “I am sure that I will get along well with him and that he will be happy with me when he sees me working, my relationship with the team and with Charles. I think his well-established relationship with Leclerc will also be very helpful to everyone in speeding up his acclimatisation here.”
That being said, there’s a lot of talk, as per normal, also about the level of effectiveness that the former Alfa Romeo Team Principal might be able to have here in Ferrari.
Though the team’s have changed, the roles haven’t where it comes to the job of the Ferrari team principal. That said, one notes, in many ways, it’s nice to have a man of the experience of Fred Vasseur in the top leadership role for the very team that sets the hearts racing of millions of F1 admirers.
The small talk regarding Carlos Sainz getting anxious about Leclerc’s proximity to Vasseur notwithstanding, it can be said with some confidence, that the Frenchman will bring a sense of pragmatism and much-needed calmness that Ferrari so badly needs.
Something the famous Italian stable so desperately sought especially after having binned many a chance at winning Grands Prix in 2022, something that surely dented their chances of snatching the Driver’s and who knows, maybe even the Constructor’s title.
That told, the following is what Carlos Sainz himself noted in relation to his new team boss at Ferrari:
From what I’ve been told and the way I’ve known him, I think he’s the man for the job,” added the Madrid-born racing driver.
He’d also conclude, “Everybody knows him in the paddock and I’m sure he will do well. There will be a period of adjustment, but Fred knows F1 and also Ferrari very well. Now there will be this preparation phase and then we will start working at full speed with him.”