14/06/2025
NEWS STORY
An emotional Fred Vasseur accuses the Italian media of seeking to destabilise Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have both leapt to the defence of their boss in the wake of claims that he is about to be ousted, whilst also denying reports about their own futures at Maranello, and when given the opportunity to give his own account of the situation at the team representatives press conference Vasseur didn't let the opportunity go to waste.
"I have to stay calm because I will have to finish to the stewards," said the Frenchman, referring to the fact that if he swore he would no doubt be reprimanded. "It's some Italian media," he continued, "it's not all the Italian media. It's not about myself, I think, because this I can manage. It's more about the people of the team.
"To throw their name like this, I think it's just disrespectful, for them, for their family. And we had the case last year with the chief of aero already," he said, referring to Enrico Cardile who is now heading to Aston Martin . We had some other names this season. I don't know the target. I don't understand the target. Perhaps it's to give s**t to the team, but in this case, I don't see the point.
"Perhaps it's for them the only way to exist. This is probably more the reason. But it's really hurting the team. It's, at one stage, a lack of focus. And when you are fighting for the championship, every single detail makes the difference. And from the beginning of the weekend, we are just speaking about this. And if it's their target to put the team in this situation, they reached their goal. But I think it's really, it's not like this that we'll be able to win a championship. And at least not with this kind of journalist around us.
"I won't go to the stewards for this... so far!" he joked.
Asked if such media attention goes with the territory when one is a team principal, he said: "No but to be the team principal, I knew when I took the position that you are exposed, and this I think is quite easy to manage. It's more for the people of the team. They are working very hard and to decide one day that "this one will be replaced, this one is useless" honestly, it's very harsh.
"These journalists, and I'm not putting everybody in the same basket, but they have to consider that these people, they have families, they have wives, they have kids. And this is completely disrespectful. But I don't want to speak any more about this stupidity."
Asked about his drivers' reaction to the media claims, and their defence of him, Vasseur said: "I can understand their reaction because we are working on a day-to-day basis. We are working to reach a target, and we are working all together.
"And it's not about me," he added. "Again, I knew before. I knew perfectly that I'm exposed. The issue is not the team principal because we are fully aware. I think the issue in this kind of situation is more the people of the team. And this is affecting me much more than my own position. You know what I mean?
"At one stage, we have to consider that the people who are in every single team on the grid - they are all working very hard. They are putting in all of their energy. Sometimes they are making sacrifices for their family and so on. And to put names like this on the paper - I think it's very, very harsh. You have to understand that when a journalist is saying "Ferrari will recruit this name for this position", there is someone already in that position. And Sunday evening, the guy says, "Okay, tomorrow morning, I won't have a job anymore because if what is in the newspaper is true, I will have someone in my position". And it's the same for all the people working under that person. And we are in this situation on a daily basis now in Italy. And too much is too much. Honestly, if they want to be successful, at one stage, we also have to be able to work in a clean environment. And we are not in that situation so far."
Asked if there is anything he can do to protect the team, he smiled. "Yeah. I'm going on Monday morning to see the guys and to say, "Guys, it's not true". But I'm not a fireman at the end of the day. It's just a matter of respect. We are fully open with them. That means if someone has to ask a question about recruitment or whatever - either I will say no, I can't speak, or yes. In this case, I would have said no way, because the person that we were speaking about last year - I had to Google the name of the guy to see the face of the guys. We are at this point now - that they are able to spread a rumour about someone I never met in my life. And consider that we are speaking about people. We are not speaking about things. And I think everybody needs to have a bit of respect."
Other than claims that he is to be replaced by Ferrari's WEC boss, Antonello Coletta, Christian Horner has also been linked with the role, the Briton being a friend of Ferrari CEO, John Elkann. Asked about his relationship with Elkann, Vasseur said: "The initial goal was to fight for the championship, but I think it's true for us, it's true for McLaren, for Red Bull, for Mercedes. We are all in this mood to fight for the championship at the beginning of the season. I think if you compare with expectations, probably McLaren is one step ahead compared to everybody. And we didn't do a good job on our side.
"Just speaking about us - Ferrari - we didn't do a good job, the couple of races, we had the disqualification in China. We were 60 points behind Red Bull and Mercedes at this stage of the season. And overall, I think we had a decent recovery, at least compared to Red Bull, Mercedes. Compared to McLaren, they are still one step ahead. It means we have to continue to try to do a better job each day and improve.
"I had the feeling that on some occasions this year, we missed opportunities, and we didn't do the same level of job as we did last year, let's say. And this, clearly, we need to improve. But it's true that if you want to win the championship - and I think it's a good lesson of 2024 - you can't leave points on the way. Last year, we had a double DNF in Canada. We had a couple of events with DNFs and issues, and it's where we have to improve, clearly. But I think it's difficult to say because we are still behind McLaren. The target is to be P1. But I think we are improving from the beginning of the season to today."
Minded that in Spain he admitted that both drivers had issues but wouldn't identify them, it was pointed out to the Frenchman that neither driver would talk about it on Thursday, media day in Montreal. Asked to explain the issue he said: "When I'm telling you in the press conference that I won't disclose, don't come back ten minutes later to try to understand. And the Friday after to try to understand, I won't disclose what's happened. It is like it is. Full stop!"
Told - given the situation Ferrari is in - that it might be better to give fans and the media some idea of the issues, he simply replied: "Ah, we put the front wheel at the rear."