The Ferrari Formula One team has had to make a last-minute change in its leadership after team principal Fred Vasseur urgently left for his home due to personal reasons.
As a result, Ferrari has declared deputy team principal Jerome d’Ambrosio as the team boss for the race at the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. A statement from Ferrari read:
“Fred will not be at the track today, because he has had to return home for personal reasons.
“Deputy team principal, Jerome d’Ambrosio, will stand in for him.”
The change occurs nearly a day after an impressive qualifying session for Ferrari, where Charles Leclerc secured the second place, while Lewis Hamilton will start from the fourth position.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton noted an improvement in his SF25 F1 car on Saturday, describing his qualifying run as one of the best so far this season. He said:
“Definitely made some progress overnight, so I’m much happier with the car, the FP3. The direction we went, I think, has been really positive. And I think edging closer in terms of performance to Charles, who’s really, really used to the car, he hardly ever changes it. So I think that’s really positive.
“I think also I had more time in the lap. I was nearly three tenths up going into turn six and I had a massive snap in it. And then I came across a line 0.06 up, so that would have put me second. So there’s positives in it for sure, and I think operationally the team did a really great job today. It’s the best qualifying process operationally that we’ve done.”
The praise comes after Ferrari installed a new floor on the car to enhance its performance. Hamilton added:
“Yeah, you guys have definitely been able to extract more from the floor. It was a really small step. First you get from having a new, there’s degradation in floors, so a new floor is always a little bit better. And then on top of that, the step of improvement in performance. And so I’m really thankful to the team back at the factory for the work that we’re able to do today.”
When asked if this was a turning point, given the car feels much better, he said:
“I don’t know. I don’t really know. I hope we can take this performance through to Silverstone, and be in a mix and find out what we can also do. And I think for me, I’m just continuing to keep my head down, continuing to work away. The fact is, every time I go to a track, it’s a new character to the car at that track.
“When I started it on Friday, I was like, shoot, this is so different to what I raced here last year. You’d be just so surprised at the different way you have to set things, and the different way you have to turn the car through corners. But I think I’ve got to tell the rest of the team. Obviously, the last lap wasn’t good enough, but I’m working on it.”
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