The challenges of Ferrari's team principal role explained by former engineer: "You don't need a thick skin, you need a rubber skin"

Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley explained how new team principal Frederic Vasseur has a huge responsibility at Ferrari. The brand is so popular in Italy that it is much more than an F1 team to the Tifosi. Hence, emotions run high whether the team does good or bad.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Smedley explained how Ferrari is not only considered an F1 team but is a religion to many. Hence, the team boss of the Prancing Horse not only represents the brand, he represents the entire country of Italy as well.

The ex-race engineer said:

"I think all the senior guys there, especially the ones that are rolled out in front of the media, it's a massive responsibility; there's no doubt about it. You can describe Ferrari in Italy as a religion, it's the national team, and therefore, you are representing the nation, not just a brand. So it is tough and you don't need thick skin you need you need rubber skin."

Rob Smedley also dove deep into how the whole of Italy and Tifosi will praise everyone on the team if they are doing well in F1 but will treat them harshly if they are performing poorly.

Later on, he stated that Frederic Vasseur will do a good job since he has been in senior positions on other teams. However, the pressure on the scarlet team will be much greater than on any other team he has worked with.

Smedley concluded:

"Fred [Vasseur] is going to go through all of that. He's a good guy, he's been in this sport um in motorsport for a long, long time, in senior positions at Grand Prix before he came into Alpha Romeo. It's a different intensity, a different pressure in Ferrari, but he just has to get on with it, it's part of his job."

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Charles Leclerc sums up his race in Saudi Arabian GP, admits that Ferrari needs more pace to fight in the front

After the 2023 F1 Saudi Arabian GP, Charles Leclerc spoke to Sky Sports about how SF-23 still lacks race pace. He explained how he was simply unable to close the gap on his teammate Carlos Sainz and was stuck in P7. Leclerc said:

"I don’t know if they were out of reach. The thing is that once I got within a second and a half to Carlos, it was very difficult to get any closer than that – the pace difference wasn’t big enough. I did a small mistake when I was within DRS, and then when I lost it, then that was it."

"I just stayed there. So it’s like this. Honestly, I don’t think there was much more anyway in the car today. We just need to work to find some pace.”

The team currently stands in fourth position in the constructors' championship table, below Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Red Bull.