Motorsport Week Editor Jack Oliver Smith seems to be on the present scenario at Ferrari and what it may imply for the way forward for its workforce boss Fred Vasseur.
Fred Vasseur was sat in Ferrari’s hospitality after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as he usually does, to face the media. His scarlet purple automobiles had endured an underwhelming race in Baku, with Charles Leclerc fourth and Lewis Hamilton sixth.
The Scuderia has loved a much better 2026 than it did 2025. With two wins – one every for Hamilton and Leclerc – and second within the Constructors’ Championship, its nightmarish ‘25, that noticed Hamilton’s fanfare-laden transfer to the Prancing Horse fall flat on its hooves, really feel a great distance away.
Nevertheless, after being Mercedes’ solely real challenger for a lot of the primary half of the season, it now appears that irrespective of how a lot it huffs and puffs, it can not blow the Silver Arrows away. And actually, there isn’t even a assure on a race weekend that it is going to be forward of McLaren and Pink Bull, each of which making vital strides from its beginning place this season.
However that isn’t simply why Vasseur was current in a considerably ominous ambiance.
As soon as once more, his future on the helm of F1’s best and oldest workforce is the topic of hypothesis from the media, and in Baku, the elephant within the room shapeshifted into the type of a person simply recognisable. Diminutive in peak, however large and daring in persona; a tidy haircut, a signet ring on his pinky, and up till final summer season, usually noticed in a Pink Bull shirt.
Yep, you guessed it.
Horner – a no brainer?
Christian Horner is on a media tour for the time being amid the discharge of his autobiography Drive. In it, he supposedly has some alternative remarks for each Helmut Marko and Adrian Newey, however with just below a month till launch date, essentially the most now we have to go on is what he says within the right here and the now. And in an interview with The Occasions, he describes being Crew Principal of Ferrari as his “dream” job.
This feels, in a roundabout way, a contradiction, given he has rejected the job as soon as earlier than. The recollections of many traditionally file that it at all times appeared Ferrari wished Horner greater than Horner wished them.
Now, you would cynically recommend that Horner is now solely saying this as different avenues again into F1 have, in actuality, been cul-de-sacs, however whatever the allegations, accusations and controversies, Horner is extra a profit and a hindrance for any workforce prepared to take him on. Field workplace Netflix fodder, Horner marshalled the forces of Pink Bull from midfield no-hopers to World Champions, and when was the final time Ferrari had that standing?
The irony is, although, that this may occasionally simply be a herring as purple as certainly one of its automobiles.
Vasseur and Hamilton – a souring relationship?
Vasseur, predictably, was requested about Horner’s feedback, to which, and to whom, he gave the shortest of shrift.
“However it’s what it’s, it’s not in my arms. Mr Horner is on the lookout for a job – that everyone is aware of – all over the place,” he mentioned.
“What can I do? Simply attempt to do my finest to push the workforce, to rise them to be motivated, deal with what is best right this moment. Every interview, 25 occasions a day, we’re coming again to this.”
Are you able to blame Vasseur for being fed-up? He took over Ferrari in 2023 from Mattia Binotto, and inside two years, got here painstakingly near a Constructors’ Championship, which might have been its first in 16 years. Admittedly, 2025 was a tumultuous marketing campaign, and hypothesis rose as as to whether he could be axed, and after launching a fiery tirade in Canada, he was handed an extension.
I’d be very intrigued to know whether or not Vasseur would have remained within the submit then had it not been for Hamilton and Leclerc, two drivers who maintain him within the highest regard. Not solely was Leclerc driving for Vasseur at Alfa Romeo, however additionally oversaw ART in Hamilton’s victorious 2006 GP2 marketing campaign. They defended Vasseur, and Leclerc’s affect inside Maranello can’t be underestimated. Hamilton additionally alluded to having Vasseur’s ear when it got here to pushing for the adjustments inside Ferrari he felt he wanted to really feel extra comfy there.
Now, there are whispers the connection between the seven-time World Champion and his Crew Principal is not fairly as cordial because it was once.
I extremely doubt that, frankly, however wouldn’t shock me that, throughout the larger echelons of Maranello, some consideration is being made about Vasseur’s future.
What can Ferrari do to get again on a successful observe?
There may be recent phrase on the road that Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s Hypercar boss, is being thought-about. This was a baseless hearsay as soon as earlier than, and it’s my understanding that’s nonetheless the case. While Coletta just isn’t off the radar solely, it’s thought-about that he’s not the first candidate to interchange Vasseur.
Neither is Horner, so far as I’m conscious, and until there’s a sure final result that guidelines him out of involvement within the eventual purchaser of Alpine’s much-coveted Otro Capital stake, that may stay so. If there’s a internet that has been solid, then I’d like to know whose names have landed in it, and I’d predict there isn’t anybody round for the time being who could be any extra of a galvaniser as Vasseur.
The dialog ought to actually return to Hamilton’s earlier intimations of “begging” Vasseur to make adjustments inside. I’ve written earlier than that Hamilton should use his appreciable clout as top-of-the-line of all-time to train a Michael Schumacher-style influential overhaul of the workforce, and that begins with a personnel want checklist. And if Leclerc had any sense, he’d agree. Some assume he’s overrated, some assume he’s a generational expertise, wasted by years of underperforming equipment and lots of situations of illogical strategic omnishambles. Both manner, he’d be nearer to a championship if issues had been to vary.
If Hamilton and Vasseur aren’t on the perfect of phrases for the time being, I wouldn’t consider that relationship’s stability to be terminal. Who is aware of what culturally-related obstacles they should overcome to get Ferrari onto a successful path, and I’m positive their visions are aligned. Perhaps, after all, there’s a chance that Vasseur is the one who has had sufficient, and will throw a spanner into the works by quitting of his personal accord.
Once more, may you actually blame him? However in both case, solely time will inform, however that point is working in the event that they need to twist moderately than stick.
It seems like that someday before later, there’ll must be a second the place Ferrari should see that the important thing to successful could also be to relinquish a few of its workforce’s ideas to its Crew Principal.
I’m usually taken again to the quote attributed to Gerhard Berger who, apparently speaking of Ferrari and Maranello mentioned: “Stand outdoors it and also you surprise why they don’t win each race; stand inside and also you surprise how they handle to win any!”
READ MORE – Ferrari points agency Fred Vasseur assertion amid Christian Horner hypothesis
