Smedley Praises Vasseur - Eyes Possible Ferrari Return

Rob Smedley admires Fred Vasseur’s intelligence, suggesting the Ferrari boss could tempt him back to the high-pressure world of Formula 1.

Rob Smedley has no desire to return to F1, even though he has received many offers over the years since leaving the pinnacle of motorsport. However, the engineer admits that if he were to receive an offer from Fred Vasseur to return to Ferrari, he might be tempted.

“I like Fred; I have a lot of respect for him and what he does,” Smedley said on the Red Flags podcast. “You know, my barometer in Formula 1—I’m always, I don’t know how to put it, lucky or unlucky—to receive offers from Formula 1 teams.”

“And my barometer is always, ‘Would I go and work for them?’ When I look at someone and think, ‘Would I go and work for them?’ And honestly, there aren’t many people I would say yes to, but Fred is one of them.”

“Fred is someone I would go and work for because, I think—I know Fred socially—but I believe we would get along well in a working environment. He’s very intelligent, but he’s also very disarming, and I think that’s a great quality for a senior manager in such a high-pressure environment.”

“He doesn’t increase the pressure. You don’t need pressure. The best Formula 1 drivers, the ones who succeed in Formula 1, don’t need any extra pressure, thank you very much.”

The engineer sees Vasseur as one of the team principals capable of making an F1 team work: “You’re already in an environment where the pressure is ridiculous, and if you succeed in Formula 1, there’s no better critic of yourself and your work than you, right?”

“You don’t need someone from the outside adding even more pressure—that’s just negativity. I think Fred has done a good job of managing that, demonstrating it, and taking care of people, because it’s not just about saying it, you also have to physically do it.”

“Fred is good at looking after his staff, handling criticism, but he’s also very intelligent and knows what it takes to make a Formula 1 team successful. And you’d be surprised to know that not all team principals understand what it takes to make an F1 team succeed, but Fred is one of them.”