Vasseur's 'cold blood' helps Ferrari, claims Leclerc

On the back of Ferrari's decision to extend Fred Vasseur's contract, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc praised the Scuderia's team boss for his "cold blood" that usually helps the Italian team to keep things under control.

Ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari have put an end to recent speculations by announcing that they have extended, with a multiple-year contract, their agreement with Fred Vasseur, who will continue as the Scuderia's team principal in the coming F1 season.

Asked to reveal what Vasseur has brought to the Scuderia over the last 30 months, Leclerc said: "Without going into comparing the different eras, Fred has an incredible vision. What's very difficult within Ferrari is the emotion is very much part of the daily job because Italian people in general, and that's what makes Ferrari so special, are extremely passionate about Ferrari.

"Fred really knows how to leave his emotions aside and have a clear vision of where we are at no matter how much noise there is around the team.

"This is very, very important. Apart from that, he's got many more qualities. One of them is also to extract the maximum out of every single person at the factory and this, when you put everything together, it makes a big difference.

Pressed on to reveal whether Vasseur was able to start a cultural change inside the team, Leclerc confirmed that the Frenchman managed to change a few things at the Maranello-based outfit.

"He definitely changed the way we are working on different things. Where Fred made the biggest difference is his vision, his overall vision. This, he embedded it into the team and that's very important.

"I feel that the beauty of Ferrari is the fact that emotionally it's always intense, but it can also harm us in some ways, especially when tougher times arrive.

"Fred has always had very cold blood in those moments and helped the team to be a little bit more, lucid – do you say that in English? Yes? OK. And that’s the biggest thing Fred has brought to the team," concluded Vasseur.