Vasseur defends Ferrari F1 strategy calls in 2023

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has defended his squad's strategy calls throughout the 2023 Formula 1 season.

The Italian squad has been criticised for several in-race decisions over the last handful of years.

Changes were made prior to the start of the season that saw Ravin Jain appointed to the Strategy Director role with his predecessor Inaki Rueda moved to a factory-based position.

In the latter stages of the campaign, Ferrari was criticised for giving Charles Leclerc a one-stop strategy at the United States Grand Prix after he dropped to sixth at the chequered flag after starting on pole position.

Vasseur highlighted that Ferrari is constantly vying to improve its pit wall operation as he pointed to the Austin race as an example of a mistake slipping through.

“We always have to improve and always try to do a better job,” he told media including RacingNews365.

“I think honestly, this season, the strategy went very well. You can discuss Austin, for example, when Charles did one stop.

“But it was more [about] the choice on the tyres than something else.”

Ferrari fell short of its pre-season expectations with rivals Red Bull dominating the campaign.

Despite being unable to consistently challenge at the front of the grid, Vasseur stated that Ferrari was able to deliver on strategy when its car was fast at certain weekends.

“Strategy is when you're making a mistake because sometimes a safety car happens two laps after [a pit stop] and you don't have the crystal ball.

“But I think I'm quite pleased with the operation, I'm quite pleased with the support from the factory and what we are doing on the pit wall.

“It was quite smooth, the atmosphere is always calm on the pit wall, and it's like this, that you are taking a good decision.

“Quite often when, from an external point of view, you have the feeling that the decision is not a good one or something like this, it’s mainly driven by the pace.

“When we had a very good pace during the season, the strategy was always good.

“It's much easier to have a good strategy when you have the pace, when you are slow, you are slow. You can do one, two or three pit stops but if you are slow, you will stay slow. Overall it was a pretty well managed.”