New Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has told Charles Leclerc he will not start the season as his number one driver. Following Mattia Binotto’s resignation, Frenchman Vassuer, 54, has been charged with ending Ferrari’s championship drought which stretches back to Kimi Raikkonen’s title triumph in 2007. Leclerc, 25, started last year as a real contender to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but his challenge faded away through a litany of mechanical and strategic mistakes. Leclerc is viewed within Ferrari as the man most likely to lead the team’s charge, but Vassuer insists he will not be awarded preferential treatment over team-mate Carlos Sainz. “It is a clear situation,” said Vassuer, who was addressing the media for the first time since taking up his post at Maranello. “We have two very good drivers and they are both able to do the job. “We will have the capacity to provide them with exactly the same car, structure and support. “The target is to win with Ferrari and for Ferrari and there will be no number one and number two. “But if at one stage we have to take action, I will take action and it doesn’t matter if it is for one driver or the other.” Leclerc won two of last year’s opening three rounds but added just one more victory from the next 19 races, ending the season 146 points behind Verstappen. Sainz won just the single race – July’s chaotic British Grand Prix – and finished 62 points behind Leclerc. Ferrari also trailed Red Bull by 205 points in the constructors’ standings. But Vasseur is confident the Italian team has the tools in place to take the fight to Verstappen and Red Bull when the new campaign fires up in Bahrain on March 5. The former Alfa Romeo team principal added: “When you are at a top team you cannot have another target than to win. “You can’t start the season and say: ‘we want to finish second’. That shows a lack of ambition. “We have everything to do a good job and the target is to win the championship and if you want to win the championship you have to beat Red Bull – I am convinced we have everything to win.” Ferrari will unveil their new car on February 14 before the sole pre-season test in Bahrain, which takes place over three days and starts on February 23. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Earth's inner core has slowed down and could have impact on days' length, new study finds ‘I had bananas thrown at me’: Lewis Hamilton details racist abuse suffered at school F1 news LIVE: Sky Sports axe presenters Johnny Herbert and Paul di Resta

(Bloomberg) -- Indonesia, the biggest palm oil supplier, is studying rules that would require exporters to trade at least some

Lousiana State University students have said the university president’s statement following the alleged rape and death of Madison Brooks “falls short of” addressing the issue of sexual assault and consent. In a statement published on Monday, LSU’s Feminists in Action decried president William F Tate’s response to the alleged sexual assault that 19-year-old Brooks suffered before being dropped off by the suspects along a roadway and fatally hit by a car on 15 January. The group demanded that Mr Tate use his “energy to fix the sexual violence our community faces instead of using alcohol as a scapegoat.” Mr Tate had previously said that the university plans to investigate why the establishment where 19-year-old Brooks met the men accused of raping her was serving alcohol to minors. “While students are grieving the loss of our peer and fearing for our safety and well-being, your administration directs its attention to the underage consumption of alcohol. This response is inexcusable,” the group said. The statement added: “These four individuals were arrested for ‘third-degree rape’ and ‘principle to rape’; not underage drinking nor driving under the influence.” The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office revealed on Monday that a severely intoxicated Brooks was dropped off along a road in a neighbourhood near Pelican Lakes Parkway after she was allegedly raped. An autopsy revealed that her blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit at the time of her death. Kaivon Deondre Washington, 18, and a 17-year-old male who has not been named due to his age have been charged with third-degree rape. Mr Washington’s uncle Everette Lee, 28, and Casen Carver, 18, are charged with principal to rape — they have since been released on bond, local news station WBRZ reported. The LSU’s Feminists in Action accused Mr Tate’s email of “victim-blaming” and demanded that the university renewed a “contract with sexual trauma awareness and response and release an accessible list of confidential registered trauma responders and organizations made by LSU.” The group said that working with students to establish a concrete plan was pivotal to eradicating “rape culture” at the university. Brooks, an Alpha Phi sorority sister, spent the night of 14 January at Reggie’s Bar and met her four alleged attackers there. Footage from the bar shows Brooks falling over several times, stumbling and struggling to stand in front of at least one of the suspects before they left the bar together, according to an arrest warrant. Investigators said Brooks was then sexually assaulted by the four men in a car before they dropped her off. At a bond hearing on Tuesday, 19th Judicial District Judge Brad Myers said that he had watched a video filmed by one of the four suspects inside the car with Brooks. The judge said that the video shows the suspects “callously” laughing at Brooks as she slurred her words, reported local outlet WAFB. The judge concluded that – based on the video, footage from Reggie’s bar and statements made by Mr Carver to investigators – it was clear that a crime had occurred that night. “The evidence to me is clear,” he said. The suspects had hoped that the footage shot inside the car would prove their innocence with an attorney for Mr Washington and the 17-year-old claiming hours earlier that it shows Brooks consented to having sex with the suspects. Attorney Ron Haley told KSLA ahead of the court appearance that the video shows Brooks “was intoxicated” but not to point that she could not “lawfully give consent or answer questions” during sex with the suspects. He described what happened to the LSU student as “a tragedy” but “definitely not a crime”. Mr Haley also said that Brooks allegedly told the suspects that she was going to order an Uber after an argument unfolded. “Based on a disagreement, she got out of the vehicle. She indicated she was getting an Uber,” Mr Haley alleged. “I want the public to know, these young men or really the driver of the vehicle and the young men that were in there, did not put her off on the side of the road.” Now, prosecutors in the case have also vowed to upgrade the charges against the alleged attackers. Prosecutor Stuart Theriot said at the hearing that the state would seek upgraded charges of first-degree rape and planned to convene a grand jury in the case. On Tuesday, Reggie’s Bar also had its liquor licence suspended for allegedly serving alcohol to the victim and three of her attackers, who were underage. Brooks’ blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit at the time of her death. Kris Perret, an attorney for Reggie’s Bar, said in a statement to NOLA.com that the owner “has fully cooperated with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana State Police and the East Baton Rouge ABC office since their first requests for assistance in their ongoing investigations and will continue to do so”. Read More LSU student Madison Brooks was given CPR by two strangers after being struck by car following alleged rape Madison Brooks timeline: From Baton Rouge bar to alleged rape and death, what happened to the LSU student? Madison Brooks was killed by a car. Now, four men who left her on the road are charged with rape

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