Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur has welcomed the public backing of his bosses and called on his team to remain united rather than point fingers and get distracted by outside noise.
While Ferrari has enjoyed an upturn in form under the new 2026 regulations, Vasseur’s position returned to the centre of media speculation earlier this week. The cause was an interview in The Times in which former Red Bull F1 chief Christian Horner suggested the Ferrari job would be a dream role, albeit without suggesting he was actively seeking it.
But the comments were enough to spark a media frenzy, especially in Ferrari’s home country Italy, which prompted the team to release a statement at the behest of Ferrari president John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna, backing Vasseur.
“This is not just related to the story in The Times of Mr Horner, but in general, there is a lot of speculation about Fred,” the statement said. “So again, we have confidence in Fred Vasseur and in his team, and we continue to do so. And the position is clear, but not just now. We already confirmed in the past.”
With Ferrari’s drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc also backing their boss on Thursday, Vasseur said he welcomed the support and hoped a sense of relative calm could return to Maranello as the team focuses on finishing the season strongly and advancing the 2027 car and power unit projects.
“When you see the noise and all the rumours in the press all the week, as a team we need to work in serenity and it was absolutely not the case,” Vasseur said in a press conference at F1’s Bahrain Grand Prix, exceptionally held in Malaysia. “I think the statement, it was mandatory to do something or it would have been the same this weekend. Honestly, the big issue we have today is the stability, the serenity in the team, the focus that we need to have and not to have this kind of question all day.”
Fred Vasseur, Ferrari
Photo by: Jayce Illman / Getty Images
While handing Vasseur his strongest vote of support yet, Hamilton suggested the structure around the Frenchman could use some tweaking, although he refused to go into details.
“There is a structure that’s been there for some time; whether or not that needs looking at moving forward… There are changes that I would make, but I’m not going to talk about what those are,” the seven-time world champion said. “Toto [Wolff] is in a different position to Fred and the structure’s a lot different. So, that’s all I can say on it, really.”
But Vasseur didn’t feel there was an organisational issue at Maranello and said it would be a “big mistake” to point fingers. Improving his squad’s inner workings is a continuous process.
“On the comment of Lewis, I think it would be a mistake to finger-point someone or something,” Vasseur said. “In the good moments, we are winning as a team. In the bad moments, we are suffering as a team. And I don’t want to speak about a single individual or whatever. Honestly, I think it would be a huge mistake to start to not be unified.
“We had a good beginning of the season. For sure it’s not enough, we want to get more, we want to win more, we want to win the championship. But at the end of the day, we had a positive start. We are struggling the last couple of races, but we are hoping to come back soon with development and to be back on the pace.”
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