Vasseur won't favour a driver: 'The important thing is that Ferrari wins'

Frederic Vasseur has made it clear that there will be no first and second drivers under his leadership. At the unveiling of the new Ferrari car for 2023, the new team boss addressed the dynamics in the team and what role he will play in it.

It is not unusual for a team to have a first and a second driver. At Mercedes, the focus has been overwhelmingly on Lewis Hamilton for years and at Red Bull it is Max Verstappen. Vasseur was therefore asked if he had a preference for who would be first to win a race for Ferrari.

"I don't care," Vasseur responded. "The most important is to have a Ferrari first. This is the target of the team. We will push both drivers in the same way, let's see what happens in Bahrain. The most important is to put Ferrari first." 

Ferrari seemed to further highlight this point of having equal drivers by doing a coin toss on who will get to drive first. Leclerc won and went first, but Sainz supposedly gets an advantage of doing an extra lap. 

'I want to win'

Vasseur was also asked about how he envisions his duties as team boss. The Frenchman takes over this season from Mattia Binotto, who was unable to capture the win in 2022 despite a visible improvement.

"It is intense, as you can imagine," Vasseur acknowledges. "You can feel the responsibility. The most important is to be successful and deliver. I don't want to be very happy because I am at Ferrari. The most important thing is to win and the challenge is in front of us. We put in so much effort, but I joined too late and my contribution is small on this one. But I can feel the work done on the car and now it will be under a new journey because the car will move to the race team. I can feel everyone is proud, this feeling is important for motivation which is crucial for the performance," he concluded.