Vasseur on Newey prospects and his plans for Mercedes F1 captures

And while the Scuderia’s boss Fred Vasseur remains tight-lipped on the state of their discussions, ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix he offered some teasing insight about the thought process he is going through.

While the bid to lure Newey remains a work in progress, and nothing needs to really be sorted for months, Vasseur knows it would be remiss of him not to try to capture F1’s biggest design talent.

And however ‘super happy’ he is with the progress his current staff have made in closing the gap to Red Bull, it is still not enough.

Asked for his comments about the ongoing Newey speculation in light of the most recent comments from the star designer, Vasseur first gave nothing away about what, or may not be happening between them.

“Adrian, he has a mega record,” said Vasseur. “He’s the most successful engineer in the paddock.

“I don’t know about statistics, but I would say that it’s like this probably. But I have no comment to make on this.”

However, further elaborating on his vision, Vasseur said that there were two parallel timeframes rolling out for him.

“We are speaking about the long term and the short term, but we are at the phase of the season where the short term is crucial,” he said. “We are pushing like hell. I trust the guys that we have in the team, but then the future will be the future.

“Honestly, it’s the occupation of Ferrari today to improve step by step, small step by small step. And I trust the people that we have in the company, that they are doing a good job.

“If you compare with one year ago and the beginning of May, which was probably Miami, we were one second off. Last week in Miami, we were 0.1 to 0.15 seconds off. It means that we made a huge step forward.

“But it’s not enough, because clearly, I think Red Bull is still ahead. It’s much less and not always, but they are still, for me, a little bit ahead.

“We have to continue [moving] hundredths by hundredths. And we have to be focused on the fact that it will never be five-tenths by five-tenths. That will be a mistake.

“If we have to compensate and to catch up, it will be hundredths by hundredths and not to imagine that there is a magic bullet”.

Plans for Mercedes recruits

While Newey’s future is not clear right now, Ferrari recently went public on its capture of two senior figures from Mercedes – Loic Serra and Jerome D’Ambrosio.

One…