Christian Horner quips about new Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur

Ahead of the 2023 F1 season, Christian Horner has already made a small jest about his new rival team principal - Frederic Vasseur.

Christian Horner quips about new Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur

Frederic Vasseur (L) Christian Horner (R)

Frederic Vasseur took over as the new Ferrari team principal in January, and he’s hard at work preparing for the new season. In addition to getting accustomed to the very special Maranello atmosphere. The pressure at Ferrari is always sky-high – the Frenchman will have to deal with that for all of his tenure. The best way to deal with it is by winning races and championships. That’s always the goal.

But he’ll be up against the tough competition: Christian Horner and Red Bull, and Toto Wolff and Mercedes. Both of the aforementioned team principals know their team inside out and mostly seem to have it together on a race weekend. The same cannot be said of Ferrari, as they made big mistakes in crucial moments last season. Time will tell if Vasseur can resolve the team’s issues and get the coveted championship trophy back to Maranello.

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In any case, the move certainly did get Horner’s attention. In conversation with Motorsport Magazine, he praised Vasseur as a ‘very capable guy’: “Fred, it’ll be interesting to see if he’s still arguing about the same points that he was for Sauber in upcoming meetings! But again, he’s a very capable guy. So yeah, it’ll be very interesting. I’m sure they’re all very capable people [the new team principals]. So we’ll get to see what the dynamics are at the next Formula 1 Commission meeting.”

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Christian Horner has ‘sympathy’ for Frederic Vasseur’s predecessor Mattia Binotto

Christian Horner (L) and Mattia Binotto (R)
Christian Horner (L) and Mattia Binotto (R)

Frederic Vasseur replaced Mattia Binotto at Ferrari. Binotto had spent almost 28 years with the Maranello outfit in various capacities, having started in the engine department way back in 1995. While he is immensely regarded as an engineer and technical man, his tenure as team principal left some things to be desired. Nonetheless, he did make Ferrari competitive again – even though sometimes the team’s execution on race weekends left fans scratching their heads.

Christian Horner has earlier acknowledged both that Ferrari ‘had their moments operationally’ and Binotto’s ‘very good job’ in producing the 2022 car. Here, he expressed sympathy for Binotto: “It has been interesting to watch the movement [of team principals]. I’ve sympathy for Mattia, because ultimately he’d done a good job. Last year, that was a big step forward from where they had been, so that must be tough for him after such long service that he had given to Ferrari.”

As mentioned earlier, Binotto is still a highly-regarded engineer, so he could find a home at another Formula 1 team – but not in 2023, as he has a year’s ‘gardening leave’. He will be a great asset to any team, and next year, he may find himself in a big role with an F1 team.

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