Fred Vasseur is staying with Ferrari, signing a multi-year deal to remain with the Italian Formula 1 giants. Motorsport Week examines why this could be the right decision.
It’s fair to say that Ferrari has not enjoyed a stellar 2025 F1 season. In fact, it’s fair to say it hasn’t enjoyed a great deal of success over the last several years.
Michael Schumacher’s 2000 title triumph was the Scuderia’s first in 21 years, quite some wait for such a team, you might agree.
But it is now precariously close to matching it, with Kimi Raikkonen’s 2007 success now about to clock 18 years ago.
Ferrari has brought in a number of different team bosses in that time, and ultimately, all have failed.
Vasseur’s arrival two years ago heralded another new dawn for the team, and like a football team that frequently changes managers, Ferrari fans were now hoping he was ‘the one’.
His charisma and gallic humour may have put people in mind of Jean Todt, the last Ferrari Team Principal to truly bring success, and did so by the bucketful.
But now in his third season, Ferrari has yet to yield any discernible bragging rights, and despite being second in the Constructors’ Championship last year and currently this year, speculation has loomed large.
The Italian press reported in June that all was not well in Maranello, and Vasseur’s head was very much on the chopping block, which led to a furious tirade from the man himself.
Claiming the reports were disrespectful to Ferrari staff and their families, and were unsettling the team, Vasseur said he did not “want to speak anymore about this stupido.”
There have also been rumours swirling for quite a period of time that Ferrari was keen to hire Christian Horner, given his longstanding success with Red Bull.
People would be forgiven to think that this would reach a crescendo, given Horner is now sat at home twiddling his thumbs amid his sacking from the team.
Now Ferrari had, on the periphery at least, the perfect opportunity to lure Horner to Maranello, but alas, it has chosen not to.
With Vasseur now having ridden all these storms, he is now vindicated in his public displeasure of the speculation surrounding his position, given that he is now committed to the long term.
Have Leclerc and Hamilton provided the support Vasseur needs at Ferrari?
Ferrari has had some history of quarrelling between team boss and those in the boardroom, but Executive Chairman John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna have been fairly coy on the issue.
In this instance, silence has appeared to be golden, allowing Vasseur to implement his ideas for the Scuderia’s long-term aspirations.
Another key factor has been the public support Vasseur has garnered from the two men driving his cars: Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc is undoubtedly the golden child of the team, and it’s fairly likely that his word would have some significance, and his commitment to the team perhaps underlines his trust in Vasseur’s vision.
Despite being perhaps an outsider of sorts given his recent arrival, Hamilton would hold a great deal of influence.
An exorbitant amount of money was paid to coax him from Mercedes, and his status as one of the greatest drivers of all time would make ears in Modena prick up a little more than they might if someone else were talking.
Hamilton cited Vasseur, his old GP2 team boss, as a big factor in his move to Ferrari, and said the rumours were “nonsense“, adding: “I do believe Fred is the person to take us to the top.”
This might also lie in the supposed change of culture that Vasseur has been trying to implement, something that Leclerc publicly praised last year.
The truth of the matter is that such changes can’t take place overnight. There will always be an air of discomfort at such a willingness to change, particularly from such a huge entity as Ferrari.
But if influential figures are backing it, then anyone who might be disconcerted by it may feel the need to back it by default.
Has 2026’s new age of F1 come at the right time for Vasseur?
There is, of course, another big elephant in the room of the corridors of power in Maranello, which is also clodhopping around the HQs of every team in F1 right now: next year’s regulations.
It is a new step into the unknown next year, with further electrification being the cornerstone of the new rules, which will see different cars take to the tracks.
For newcomers like Cadillac, and transitioning teams like Sauber into Audi, perhaps it feels like the first chapter of a new story, but for existing teams, would it make sense to introduce a new protagonist halfway through?
Vasseur may have profited from this at the right time, and perhaps can benefit from the new era by continuing that culture change, particularly as some reports have indicated that its interpretation of the new rules in its powertrain looks somewhat promising.
There has also been such a fixation on the foibles of this year’s SF-25 that perhaps due diligence has been exercised by the design team to such an extent that it will hyperfocus on righting the wrongs of this year.
But whatever the reasons, Vasseur is here to stay. It is worth noting that it took Todt seven years at Ferrari to win a Constructors’ Championship, and eight to win a Drivers’ Championship.
Then, a flurry of titles came one after the other, and brought with it its most successful period in its history, which is longer than the history of F1 itself.
They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. Maranello has already been built, but maybe Vasseur is the man who oversees its grand redesign.
READ MORE – Why beating Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari ‘doesn’t interest’ Charles Leclerc in F1 2025
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