Former Ferrari team boss Cesare Fiorano commends the decision to present Charles Leclerc with an expansive new Formula 1 contract.
There are speculations this week suggesting that, while the Maranello team might extend Carlos Sainz’s contract for only one year in 2025, Frederic Vasseur is currently finalizing a substantial deal spanning from 2025 to 2029 for Leclerc. The reported contract includes a doubled annual salary, reaching EUR 50 million.
“I think it’s a good move”, Fiorio told La Gazzetta dello Sport, “because he’s adding to his speed and skill the ability to limit the number of errors he makes.”
“Until recently he committed too many of them”, the 84-year-old Italian added. “(Max) Verstappen is the same age as him, but he too made a lot of mistakes in the early years.”
“Now Leclerc is moving towards the kind of maturity that Max and Lewis Hamilton have.”
Fiorio also thinks Ferrari would be right to also keep working with Spaniard Sainz.
“They make a few too many mistakes, but they are both very fast”, he said.
“Leclerc is better in qualifying and faster than his teammate, even if we’re talking about tenths, not half a second. Sainz is overall more skilled in managing a race.”
Regarding Ferrari’s new leader, Vasseur, Fiorio, the former sporting director at Ferrari from 1989 to 1991, believes the Frenchman has performed admirably in his inaugural year at the helm of the esteemed Italian team.
“He is undoubtedly a great professional and someone who knows his job very well, also because he has practically always been doing it”, he said.
“In Formula 1, his CV in terms of results isn’t that exceptional, and overall it’s not like he did any better than (Mattia) Binotto. But he is a great professional and we will see the true fruit of his work in 2024.”
However, the prospect of Ferrari catching up with Red Bull in 2024 remains uncertain.
“A good job was done compared to Mercedes”, said Fiorio, “given that they (Red Bull) were almost caught. In general I see that several teams behind Red Bull are at the same level. The problem is obviously Red Bull.”
“But it has always been like this in F1, with periods of more or less absolute dominance. But it never lasts forever.”
As for Ferrari’s workload over the winter, he explained: “It seems to me that on the engine front, nothing more is needed. But work is needed to resolve the problems in the fast corners.”
“A step is also needed in terms of strategies, as we saw some errors. We need more creativity, more intuition, not following the decisions of other teams.”
“This year was quite an uphill battle, said the Italian, but overall, Ferrari confirmed that it has first-rate staff, excellent mechanics and engineers of great value. That is, everything that is needed to return to maximum competitiveness as soon as possible.”
