[ad_1]
Christian Horner believes that Ferrari will again be under ‘brutal’ pressure from the Italian media in 2024 as the Prancing Horse look to mount a title challenge. Fred Vasseur’s organisation finished third in the standings last season while Red Bull dominated on their way to back-to-back Constructors’ Championship titles.Vasseur made a positive impression in the paddock during his first season with Ferrari after replacing the outgoing Mattia Binotto at the conclusion of the ill-fated 2022 campaign. The Italian constructor started that season with a one-two finish in Bahrain but was rapidly undeveloped by Red Bull as the title pendulum swung away from Charles Leclerc. Despite a solid foundational year under Vasseur’s leadership, 2023 was a major disappointment from a results perspective. The Scuderia were the only team other than Red Bull to win a race after Carlos Sainz converted pole position to victory in Singapore, but that was the team’s only triumph of the season, despite starting in pole position seven times.Discussing the pressures facing Vasseur heading into his sophomore year as Ferrari team principal, Horner told Sky Sports: ”Ferrari is a different type of team, a national team. There is a pressure which comes with that and the Italian media is absolutely brutal and [they] scrutinise every move. Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive F1 news.“There is just huge expectation. Fred is a capable guy and a racer and Ferrari are a big animal in F1. Expectation will be very high for them next year.”After failing to mount a challenge for the title in 2023, Ferrari’s wait for a World Championship now stands at 15 years. Despite the best efforts of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc, Kimi Raikkonen’s 2008 triumph remains their most recent success story.With every season that passes without a World Championship, expectations and pressure from the Tifosi grow, but Vasseur is content with the mentality on show at his team during his first year on the job. “When you arrive in this group, you need to understand how the group is working before taking any action or decision,” he explained. “The main topic for us and the biggest improvement we did the season was more on the approach and the mentality. I think that we took more risk, we were a bit more aggressive and this played a part. We have to be ambitious and not be scared of any incident or something like this, and I think we did a step on this.”
[ad_2]
Source link