MPH: Ferrari to sack Vasseur? It's the same cycle of F1 failure
F1
Reports that Fred Vasseur is under pressure don't seem to bode well for the Ferrari F1 boss. Will the team once more take the short-term approach and ignore its tested blueprint for success, says Mark Hughes
Questions over Vasseur's future are following an ominously familiar pattern
So it starts again: the inevitable Ferrari cycle of questioning the future of the team principal for the Scuderia’s on-track difficulties. When it gets reported in more than one publication of the Italian press on the same day that Frederic Vasseur is under pressure, it has all the hallmarks of senior corporate management no longer protecting its man. It’s a repeat of the process which saw Mattia Binotto ousted at the end of Ferrari’s most competitive season in years but which didn’t live up to the title promise of the first few races. It’s almost as if a starting gun has been fired, with Vasseur only part-way through his third year in the job.
The attitude behind this process is the exact same reason Ferrari has not been as successful as it aspires to be. Success comes from having the right people in the right places, with the right facilities, and then letting it grow. Allowing the mistakes to be made and to keep moving towards the goal – no matter how long it takes. Anything else instils the fear culture.
Ever since the late Sergio Marchionne arrived with his bullish automotive management style, installed his unsuitable general who barked to Marchionne’s orders, Ferrari’s fundamentals have not been right. Binotto was a way more suitable TP than his predecessor and managed to repair much of the damage to morale, but ultimately it wasn’t enough for the new boss John Elkann. He is much more than the corporate bosses of old in that he effectively owns Ferrari, which is no longer part of a big automotive group and so he isn’t likely to replace himself.
So Vasseur got his opportunity and Ferrari has made further progress after the initial step back in ’23. Its pit operations and strategy have improved and last year it delivered a highly competitive car. But then the inevitable setback and the equally inevitable questioning of his position.
In Montreal Lewis Hamilton was quick to give his full support to Vasseur, but he is under his own pressure, of course. “It’s definitely not nice to hear those stories,” he said. “I love working with Fred. He’s the main reason I’m in this team… we’re in this together. Things aren’t perfect but I want Fred here. I do believe he’s the person to take us to the top.”
Ferrari weathered struggles in the Schumacher years before it came to dominate
Ferrari
The most ridiculous part of this long-running story is that the blueprint for success is already there in its own history. Ferrari became the most successful team of all time in the early 2000s through Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn and Jean Todt forming what Brawn described as a ‘protective forcefield’ to keep the corporate pressures out of the team. There were mistakes along the way – plenty of them, including lost title opportunities in 1997, ’98 and ’99. But it didn’t matter. The trajectory was good and when success came, it was overwhelming. They didn’t stop winning until the lead players essentially tired of repeating themselves.
He started his own racing team as a joke during engineering school, but Fred Vasseur now holds one of the most prestigious jobs in sport, as team principal of the…
By
Cambridge Kisby
It’s long been said that F1 needs Ferrari to be competitive, that it needs Ferrari more than vice-versa. Maybe. But maybe less than before, also. As F1’s commercial stature and profile continue to increase, with the brand set to be further boosted by the forthcoming Brad Pitt film, F1, Ferrari’s position in the stack isn’t necessarily holding up. New fans don’t necessarily hold it in the reverence it’s traditionally commanded. There’s still a lot of Ferrari red in the crowd – but any more than Red Bull blue, McLaren papaya or Verstappen orange?
The rumour is that corporate management is looking at the McLaren blueprint of the Zak Brown/Andrea Stella combination. Lorenzo Giorgetti, the chief racing revenue officer who already reports direct to Benedetto Vigna (ie over Vasseur’s head), is said to be the favoured Zak-type overlord figure. Ferrari WEC boss Antonello Coletta is said to have twice refused the F1 Team Principal role. But if not him, who? Christian Horner is always mentioned in these conversations and indeed he was approached before Vasseur. He’d surely need a bigger salary than the bosses to even consider it – which might be one reason it couldn’t work. Stella himself, an ex-Ferrari man? Incredibly able, but why would he take such a poisoned chalice given his great current situation?
