"He’s been at the coalface long enough": Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur backed by former adversary

Former F1 driver David Kennedy recently praised Frederich Vasseur and explained how he is smart enough to lead Ferrari towards glory. Kennedy knows Vasseur well as the two were old rivals when they were leading teams in junior categories.

In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1, Kennedy stated that Vasseur has massive amounts of experience in the sport and knows whom to hire and include in his team.

Kennedy further explained that he believes Vasseur will do wonders in the Ferrari if he gets a bit of time.

“Fred has earned his spurs in all the junior categories, and has an exceptional pedigree. He’ll know the business from nuts and bolts all the way through. This is a people business, and he will know who the stars are in terms of engineers and designers. He’s been at the coalface long enough and I think, given a little bit of time, and if Ferrari doesn’t do what they often do by getting wobbly knees and pulling the rug from under them, they’ll let him get on with it,” said the former F1 driver.

Kennedy then compared Ferrari's current team boss to its old and most successful one, Jean Todt. He reminisced about how Todt himself needed time to steer the Italian team on the path to glory. According to Kennedy, Frederic Vasseur is on a similar trajectory.

“I remember when Jean Todt started, he had a tough couple of years till he got the pieces in place. And, when he did, they were dynamite, and I think Fred is in that process,” he added.

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Carlos Sainz on how Ferrari should focus on the basics before expecting consistent podium finishes

Carlos Sainz was blatant about how Ferrari needs to resolve the basic issues and improve before expecting to win races or stand on podiums.

As per Motorsport.com, the Spaniard explained that if the best position his team can finish in a race weekend is lower than their expectations, they should not be saddened by it but rather first focus on unleashing the car's potential.

"If one weekend we need to go and fight for P5 and that's the maximum we can do, we need to celebrate the fact that we've done the maximum with what we have this year. [We need to] focus more on maximizing the car's potential, and the team's performance in this second half of the season. We want to make sure we maximize our constructor points, stop kind of expecting a win or a podium and just focus on nailing the principles and be consistent," Sainz explained.

The Prancing Horse is currently fourth in the constructors' championship with 191 points, behind Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Red Bull.