30 September 2023 , 07:00
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Frederic Vasseur vowed to make Lewis Hamilton's life difficult by fighting Mercedes hard to the end of this Formula 1 season.
The title 'race' has been a foregone conclusion since the early weeks of this season. Red Bull were head and shoulder above their competitors at the first few Grands Prix and have remained so as the campaign has progressed.
Behind them, though, things have been much tighter. The balance of power among the four teams fighting for podiums, particularly in the second half of the year, so far, has been shifting on a weekly basis.
And that has led to a close fight for the runner-up spot in the constructors' championship. McLaren are too far behind after a slow start and Aston Martin have dropped off, but just 20 points separate Mercedes and Ferrari with six rounds left.
With all to play for, F errari team principal Vasseur is keen to continue to push Mercedes hard until the end of the season. And the Frenchman sees no reason why that should have to come at the expense of his team's preparations for the 2024 campaign.
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"You don't have to postpone the fight, the fight is with Mercedes today, and we have to take it," he said. "It's always the best way to prepare for the future, for the mindset of the team, for everybody to be into the fight is crucial. And we'll keep this fight until the end of the season.
"It's never a sacrifice, because I think that performance is coming from performance. It's too late to go into the wind tunnel for this season, but what we can do on the current car will help us for next year."
And Vasseur will not be the only boss pushing his team hard until the end. Mercedes want to close the gap to Red Bull with their 2024 car but, despite the effort and resource going into achieving that goal, Silver Arrows head of race strategy Rosie Wait has already confirmed there are more upgrades for this season's car to come.
She said: " Whilst we will have to use the winter to make more fundamental developments to W15, there are plenty of things we can do with the current car which will both make it faster and aid our learning and understanding to develop next year's car. That's what we've already been doing and will continue to do.
"The things we will learn from testing them this year will directly feed into the development of the W15. We also mustn't lose sight of the fact that we are in a tight battle for P2 with Ferrari and that position in the championship is really important to all of us. So, we have upgrades in the pipeline and will continue to be bringing them to the car."