Former Ferrari engineer claims Frederic Vasseur needs to be 'STRONGER'

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Former Ferrari engineer claims Vasseur needs to be 'STRONGER'

He doesn't think the fight between drivers at Monza should've been allowed to happen

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 7 September 2023 15:57

Former Ferrari engineer Ernest Knoors has claimed that Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur should have been 'stronger' at the Italian Grand Prix.

After spending a lot of the race at Monza defending from the Red Bulls, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc found themselves in a position at the end of the race where they were battling each other for the final podium position.

In front of their adoring home fans, the team were desperate to have at least one of their drivers up on the iconic podium celebrating, but it soon became clear that they weren't both going to be able to be up there, with Red Bull's pace just far too good for anybody to keep up with.

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As such, a great battle between the two drivers ensued, with Sainz eventually getting the better of his team-mate for a well deserved third-place finish.

However, the way in which Leclerc battled with Sainz has been criticised by many, with his aggressive driving right to the end putting the team result at risk.

After the race, Knoors had his say on the matter, criticising the team for letting them fight, telling Viaplay: "Risky fight. What I don't understand from Ferrari is, if you know you are limited on that tyre degradation, what you don't want then, is to put two cars so close together in the middle of your race so that they start to work against each other a bit with that wear.

"Let them both drive in free air, make a decision, let someone ahead or leave someone behind [strategy wise], but don't leave it up to the drivers to race, because with that they both use up their tyres a lot, and you saw at the end that Sainz was struggling to keep his tyres in good shape."

Vasseur should have been 'stronger'

Ferrari have only managed four podiums in the first 14 races of the season, such has been their lack of pace and Red Bull's dominance

At one stage of the thrilling battle for third place, Leclerc almost collected his team-mate going into turn one after locking up his tyres.

That would have been a disaster for Ferrari, who might have gone home with zero points from a race in which their pace looked the strongest it has all season.

A fantastic performance in qualifying saw Sainz snatch pole position away from Verstappen, whilst Leclerc also managed to put his car in third, giving them a great chance of trying to beat the Red Bull's in Sunday's race.

As he has been all season, however, Verstappen was far too strong and ended up waltzing to a Formula 1 record tenth victory in a row, having overtaken Sainz on lap 15.

Those 14 laps led by Sainz were the most amount of laps anybody has led in 2023, other than Verstappen and his his team-mate Sergio Perez, showing off the impressive domination of the RB19.

So for Ferrari to come home in third and fourth is a great result for them, and pushed them up to third in the constructors' championship. Knoors believes that a stronger team wouldn't have risked this result.

"I think a stronger… I have to be careful, but a good team would manage this differently. A stronger team leader here would say ‘guys I don't want to see this' the race is still long, I want to keep the opportunity open for the end of the race. And that [would be] strategically a bit stronger.

"I think they said 'you can race till the end but keep it clean' and I wouldn’t have given that message, I would have just said 'guys this is it, and stay away from each other, and make sure you don't do anything stupid' But okay [it was] a nice fight, we saw something we don't normally see, they didn't crash into each other, so there was respect and skill there, but everyone’s heart was in their throat."