Frédéric Vasseur officially began at Scuderia Ferrari on 9 January 2023. The Frenchman took charge as team principal and general manager after replacing Mattia Binotto.
Frédéric Vasseur officially started work at Scuderia Ferrari on 9 January 2023, taking over as team principal and general manager at one of Formula 1’s most scrutinised teams.
His arrival mattered immediately because Ferrari was coming off a 2022 season that had shown clear speed but also recurring weaknesses in race execution, strategy and reliability. Vasseur was therefore not hired simply to maintain direction. He was brought in to tighten the structure around a team that still had front-running pace but had fallen short in the title fight.
Ferrari’s decision also underlined how much importance the team placed on leadership and organisational clarity. Vasseur arrived with long experience in team management, including previous roles with Renault and Sauber, and with a reputation for building coherent racing operations. At Ferrari, that skillset was crucial because the job extended beyond car performance. It involved managing pressure, improving decision-making and creating a more stable competitive framework around Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
The significance of 9 January 2023 lay in the fact that it marked the formal beginning of a new phase in Ferrari’s modern F1 project. Vasseur did not inherit a rebuilding team from the back of the grid. He inherited one that was already fast enough to win races, but not yet consistent enough to sustain a championship challenge. His first day therefore carried weight well beyond a routine management change.
