New Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says he wasn’t impressed by the “virtual” launches several of his team’s rivals arranged for the 2023 season.
Ferrari made a dramatic start to their new campaign by presenting their new SF-23 in front of an audience and immediately running it on their Fiorano test track.
Vasseur, who only joined the team last month, said Ferrari’s presentation of the new car was an “emotional” occasion.
“We put so much effort – honestly not myself, I joined too late, my contribution is very small on this one – but I can perfectly feel the work done on the car and now it will be a new journey for the project because the car will move to the race team,” he said.
“It’s a great feeling, it’s like when you are back on track, it’s like when you’re back at school, and I can feel that everybody’s very proud of the job done. And this feeling is very important for the motivation of everybody and for the season.
“It will be a quite long season, but the motivation is there and it’s crucial in terms of performance.”
While some other teams have presented genuine 2023 cars, including McLaren and Aston Martin yesterday, others presented models in current liveries or issued renderings of their designs. Vasseur said he was proud of Ferrari’s launch event.
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“This is a good feeling,” he said. “The look of the launch of the other teams I think it was a bit virtual or online.
“I don’t want to speak about the others but I’m more than proud to do something like this with all the tifosi around the track, with guests, it’s a really big event and for us it’s the best way to start the season.”
Charles Leclerc was the first of the team’s drivers to drive the new car, for two laps. A video produced by Ferrari showed Vasseur tossing a coin to determine who had the first run. Carlos Sainz Jnr is due to drive the car next, and he will get three laps around Fiorano in the SF-23.
There will be just three days of official pre-season testing before the start of the new season. “Three days is a lot in one end and it’s nothing in the other,” said Vasseur. “Because you have two drivers, it’s one day-and-a-half each.
“They did some training but nothing can replace the real car and and the real session. They also will have the pressure of the results, it means that it will be a completely different…
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