Hamilton believes Vasseur is the right man for the job
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Earlier this week, Ferrari‘s unusual statement of “full confidence” in Fred Vasseur was supposed to end the speculation about his position and allow him to go back to focusing on his job.
As it’s often the case with denials, it has had the opposite effect, and by Friday at Sepang, the Scuderia’s team principal was being asked to explain why the statement was needed at all.
“I think this you have to ask your colleagues,” Vasseur said.
“When you see the noise and all the rumours in the press all week, I think as a team we need to work in serenity, and it was absolutely not the case.
“I think the statement was mandatory to do something, or it would have been the same this weekend.”
The noise began when Christian Horner told The Times last week that Ferrari would be the “dream job”, and reportedly the only team he would join as an employee rather than having some kind of equity.
Ferrari’s response was to say it had “confidence, full confidence, in Fred Vasseur and in his team, and we continue to do so”, but the result has been a week in which the debate is about one man and the more interesting question, raised by his own driver, has been left alone.
On Thursday, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both backed Vasseur, the Briton calling him “a fantastic leader”.
Hamilton suggested Ferrari’s problems come from above
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“There often seems to be a lot of focus on one individual, in one role, always here,” Hamilton said. “He really is the guy to take this team in the right direction.”
But the seven-time champion drew a line between Vasseur the person and the system he operates in.
“Structure is very important, and so is stability. Everyone rowing in the same direction is key in any business,” Hamilton continued.
“However, there is a structure that has been there for some time, and whether or not that needs looking at moving forward is a question.”
He added: “There are also people above Fred and it’s not about one person.”
Hamilton pointed to Toto Wolff at Mercedes, who is both team principal and a one-third owner, as the contrast.
“Toto is in a different position to Fred. The structure is a lot different. There are changes that I would make but I am not going to talk about what those are,” Hamilton concluded.
Asked at Sepang on Friday whether he has the powers he needs and whether the structure should evolve, Vasseur talked first about the technical side.
“It’s a non-end story. It means that you have to improve. I think it’s the DNA of what we are doing, to not take a success as a final situation, but try to improve in the good and the bad moments.”
Vasseur has blamed the media for the, saying the attacks were personal
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On Hamilton’s comment specifically, Vasseur was firmer than he had been on the technical side, rejecting the idea of pointing at any one part of the organisation and arguing that Ferrari’s strength depends on staying united.
“I think it would be a mistake to finger-point someone or something or whatever. 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.”
When he was pressed a second time on whether he has enough autonomy within Ferrari’s structure, and whether Hamilton’s comments mean that structure needs looking at, Vasseur answered by describing his relationship with the two people above him and denying that the organisation was the issue, while acknowledging that every team wants to do more.
“The relationship that I have with my bosses, Benedetto and John, is a very good one. We are in daily contact, and I can’t complain at all about the organisation. But for sure, you always want to get more, you always want to do more, you always want to recruit more too… But honestly, it has nothing to do with the organisation.”
It’s a coherent defence of a team principal who wants no daylight between himself and his employers, although Hamilton didn’t ask whether Vasseur gets on with CEO Benedetto Vigna and chairman John Elkann. He asked whether the arrangement is the right one.
The pattern around Ferrari is, and has been for decades, that when the team struggles, it’s the team principal who pays for it.
Vasseur said as much when he was asked about the criticism he faces, although he pointed the finger at the media.
“What is sometimes a bit unfair is when you put someone under the bus, and I’m there also to defend my team, my guys… when we are struggling, I’m there to defend all of them.
“Sometimes the attacks are a bit personal. It’s not good. We need friendly media.”
Ferrari hasn’t won the drivers’ title since 2007 and the constructors’ since 2008, across several principals, including Stefano Domenicali, Marco Mattiacci, Maurizio Arrivabene and Mattia Binotto, whom Vasseur replaced before 2023.
What looks like a series of individual failures may be one structural one, and the debate over Vasseur’s future repeats a cycle now easily recognisable by anyone paying attention.
Ferrari chairman John Elkann’s call for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to “talk less” is the latest example of a long Ferrari tradition – when pressure mounts, the criticism starts at the top
Horner’s interest, taken at face value, would be the same story: a new person, same arrangement. As Mark Hughes pointed out in his latest column here, Ferrari’s real issue goes beyond the team boss.
Vasseur said “the big issue that we have today is the stability, the serenity into the team, the focus that we need to have, and not to have this kind of question all the day.”
The Ferrari that Vasseur described on Friday is united, supported from above and short of a bit of pace.
The Ferrari Hamilton described on Thursday has a structure that may need “looking at moving forward”, and on this argument it is that structure, not the man in charge of it, that stands between the team and genuine title contention, and between Vasseur and a week without questions about his future.
Both can be true, although the second is the harder to say out loud, particularly for a team principal at a public press conference.
In the end, the question Hamilton raised can’t be answered by a statement of confidence in one man when the seven-time champion himself is suggesting the answer may lie higher up.
