Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is ready to "take risks" as he predicts a four-way race for the Formula 1 constructors' championship in 2025. (More Sports News)
Ferrari finished as runners-up in the constructors' standin꧂gs, just 14 points behind winners McLaren, who won their ninth championship, though the Italian team still hold the most with 16 wins.
Their second-place finish marked a vast improvement over 2023 when they finished a staggering 454 🍃points behind Red Bull.
With Lewis Hamilton joining the team for next season, alongside Charles Leclerc, Vasseur is confident in Ferrari's ability to challenge for the title again but expects༒ t🧔o be going head-to-head with McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull.
"Everybody is taking risks," Vasseur told the F1𓂃 website. "If you don't take risks, you're dead.
"We know the d📖evelopment of this car; it's never easy as we are at the ascent of the development and it's more an💧d more difficult.
"Everyone is taking risks, and we have to take risks also because 2025 will be a strange season. We will have to switch quite early with the 2026 project, which meওans the car you put on track in Bahrain will be crucial."
Both Leclerc (356) and the departing Cꦐarlos Sainz (290) registered career-high points tallies in 2024 as they finished third and fifth in the drivers' sta𓆏ndings.
The Monagasque's 13 podium finishes reflected his best season in F1, while Sainz claimed his ninth such finish in the fina൩l race in Abu Dhabi, equalling his own best year in the competition (2022).
"It was a good season f𓄧or us, for sure, with ups and downs as with everyone, but with more ups than downs," Vasseur said. "It was a very good season compared to 2023.
&𝄹quot;We're going in the right direction. We improved in every si⭕ngle pillar of performance – reliability, strategy, pit stops, pure performance and on KPIs, we were five wins against one and on points, we scored 60% more points in 2024 than in 2023.
"Everything is going in the right direction. We missed the last step, but when we went to Abu Dhabi, 🌠the percentage of chance to win was very low.
"But it's not in Abu Dhabi that we missed something. Abu Dhabi itself was a good event, it's mo✤re in Canada we had a double zero, or in the summertime we missed somethi🎉ng."
"There is no big difference [to their approach]. We are trying to improve on every singl🐈e area of the performance, in every single department of the company. It's small step by small step.
"It's a no-end project, a no-end process to recꦅruit, to💦 develop, to try to do a better job."
