Massa: Ferrari have 'many, many problems' to fix.
Felipe Massa believes Ferrari needs to fix 'many many problems' to give Charles Leclerc a chance of winning this year's F1 title.
Monday 23 January 2023 06:59
Paul Macdonald
GPFans

Ferrari's questionable strategy decisions plagued its 2022 season despite a strong start, and Massa, speaking in an interview with Polish site Swiatwyscigow.pl, said in order to win a title, certain situations have to be perfect – something Ferrari must bear in mind. "First of all, I think Charles is doing a fantastic job," said Massa. "He's a great driver, he really deserves to be in a competitive car. He deserves to have the opportunity to fight for the championship as a driver.”

"But yeah, I think they need to fix the problem. They need to improve the things that are not working, on the strategy but also on so many other things. They have mechanical issues at the beginning of the season. They had problems in the pit stop, many, many problems with the strategy.”

"In the end, to win the championship, everything needs to be perfect. For me, when you have a season like this, it's important to fix things in the right way. If you start to change things and you change in the wrong way, that is not good. So, you need to change things in the right way and fix them quickly. You need to fix now until the last race to be better for the next season."

‘Everything needs to be perfect’;

https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/99...-felipe-massa/


Ex-F1 star disagrees with Charles Leclerc as new Ferrari boss told to act 'like a parent'.
Ferrari's strategic errors cost them a shot at the title in 2022.
11:30, Mon, Jan 23, 2023
By Luke Chillingsworth
Daily and Sunday Express

Former F1 driver Emmanuele Pirro has claimed Ferrari shouldn’t favour Charles Leclerc amid a team orders row at the Prancing Horse. Ex-boss Mattia Binotto refused to prioritise Leclerc last season as he maintained equal footing at the Scuderia.

However, it is a move which is understood to have led to the downfall of Binotto and Leclerc’s relationship as Max Verstappen and Red Bull cruised to the crown. But, new team boss Frederic Vassuer has been urged to stand strong to make sure the team achieves the best results.

He also called on Leclerc to “make the difference" himself instead of asking for favours. Speaking to Corriere dello Sport, Pirro said: “It depends on the drivers you have available “In Red Bull, the problem doesn’t even arise, with Verstappen so much stronger than Perez. With team-mates who can be compared today such as Hamilton-Russell or Leclerc-Sainz, the team principal must support those who are more in difficulty, like a parent with a weaker child.”

‘Act like a parent';

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...ur-news-latest


‘Charles Leclerc a better bet for 2023 F1 title than Lewis Hamilton, George Russell’
Monday 23rd January 2023 3:00 PM
Oliver Harden
PlanetF1.com

A respected Formula 1 observer believes Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc is a better bet to be crowned World Champion in 2023 than Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Speaking via his Twitch stream, former Williams and Ferrari team manager Peter Windsor sees Verstappen as the strong favourite to make it three in a row in 2023, but sees more scope for improvement at Ferrari and Mercedes as F1 enters the second season of the ground effect regulations.

He said: “As far as how [Ferrari] will go in 2023, I’m not sure that is in the hands of either Charles Leclerc or Freddy Vasseur. It’s in the hands, ultimately, of the technical team. No matter how much the new coach can say, ‘we’ve all got to work hard, we’ve got to focus on this, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that’, ultimately it comes down to talent and it comes down to brainpower.”

“It doesn’t come down to resources, it doesn’t come down to money. It comes down to talent and brainpower, which is why Red Bull are as good as they are because it’s ultimately Adrian Newey’s design team that creates that car. So how good a car will the technical department at Ferrari create in 2023 based on what they had in ’22 and bearing in mind the regulation changes are relatively small and we’re fixed now on power units? The logical thing to say is that Ferrari will be a bit nearer Red Bull probably.”

‘Talent and brainpower’;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/charle...eorge-russell/


Ferrari definitely needed 2023 shakeup says Alesi
JANUARY 23, 2023
GrandPrix.com

Ferrari needs to rely on a pair of French talents to put the fabled team back on track in Formula 1. That is the view of Jean Alesi, one of the most well-known former French F1 drivers who famously raced for the Italian team in the 90s.

"Certainly, in order for the team to move forward, it is necessary to implement changes for the better in a number of aspects," Alesi said. The most obvious change for 2023 was the axing of Ferrari's Italian team boss Mattia Binotto, as he is replaced with Alfa Romeo's French principal Frederic Vasseur.

But Alesi says Vasseur will now work very closely with Ferrari's existing sporting boss Laurent Mekies - who is also French. "I believe Vasseur will have to rely a lot on Laurent," he said. "He has been working at Ferrari for several years and is ideally suited for the role of helping the new leader to figure out which areas need to be reformed and which do not need to be changed.”

‘2023 shakeup’;

https://www.grandprix.com/news/ferra...ays-alesi.html


How Ferrari added to FIA organisational "crisis"
Monday 23 January 2023 10:47
Ronan Murphy
GPFans

Former F1 driver and FIA steward Emanuele Pirro has revealed how Ferrari played a part in the governing body's "crisis" following the death of Charlie Whiting. Long-time F1 race director Whiting passed away in the build-up to the Australian Grand Prix in 2019.

Pirro, who left F1 to forge a successful endurance racing career, has explained how Ferrari's decision to hire Laurent Mekies as racing director threw the FIA into further disarray. "With Whiting gone, the system went into crisis," Pirro told Corriere della Sera. "Laurent Mekies, who was supposed to replace him, was taken by Ferrari."

Following Masi's departure, Pirro added: "Wittich and Freitas were the best available, but alternation cannot work. You have to create a long bench because the race director can only grow in that room, you cannot recruit him from outside."

‘FIA organisational "crisis" ‘;

https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/99...tional-crisis/


Ferrari "politics" blamed for Mick Schumacher's 2023 F1 absence amid AlphaTauri admission
Schumacher might have been offered another seat on the 2023 F1 grid despite being axed by Haas, but the chief of the interested team has blamed Ferrari for that not happening
18:51, 23 Jan 2023
By Daniel Moxon F1 Writer

Franz Tost has admitted he would have liked to sign Mick Schumacher to race for AlphaTauri this season. But, as he explained, there was a reason why such a move didn't materialise. Schumacher was released by Haas at the end of last season after just two seasons, leaving the German to take up a reserve role with Mercedes rather than another race seat.

AlphaTauri had already signed Nyck de Vries by that point, to replace Pierre Gasly. But even if that wasn't the case, long-serving team principal Tost explained there was another key reason why there was never any hope of signing Schumacher.

‘Ferrari "politics" blamed’;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...tauri-29031302