Frederic Vasseur reacts strongly about rumours surrounding Ferrari after reports from Italian media, as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc chime in.
It is always the case with Ferrari and Italian media. When things aren’t going right, there are reports from certain section of Italian media about potential departures. Between the races in Barcelona and Canada, two stories popped up about Vasseur and Leclerc one after the other.
It was said that Vasseur’s place is under threat if Ferrari doesn’t makes progress. At the same time, Leclerc’s side was about the Monegasque loosing faith in the F1 team and contemplating leaving it. Both of the news was put down vehemently by the parties when asked by the media.
In addition, Vasseur had a strong reaction on what a certain section of media has been writing, especially the names of people being hired or fired. The Frenchman feels it is disrespectful for them to be so aggressive in their write-ups and speculation which hurts everyone in the team.
Vasseur also played down Leclerc’s news, which the Monegasque was surprised about as well. Hamilton noted how Vasseur has been one of the biggest reasons for him to make a move to Ferrari. The Brit also requested media to be more mindful of what they are writing.
The trio was also quiet about the issue that they faced in Barcelona. All three said they know what hurt them but they are not going to reveal it to media. In all of this, former Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz shared his thoughts about the situation as well, where he was surprised by the performance dip.
Barcelona issue –
Hamilton: “Massively. Unfortunately, the team yesterday said they didn’t really want us to talk too much about it, but we both had issues that were hindering us massively from halfway through the race already. I didn’t know whether or not we had that problem, but I said on the radio that it was the worst-feeling car I’d ever had – and it truly was with that issue. At the end of the race, I was like, ‘jeez, I’ve never experienced something this bad for such a prolonged time through a race’. It wasn’t until after the TV interviews I got back to the engineers and we found out there was an issue. It was a bit of a relief to hear that because I didn’t feel so terrible afterwards.”
Leclerc: “No, I can’t elaborate on those. It already started on my second stint, little bit and then on the last stint, we had to manage quite a lot. It was a tricky race but I think the positive was that the first stint was very positive in terms of pace. The second one wasn’t too bad even with the issues that we encountered, the last one we know why we were slow.”
Vasseur: “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. Ah, we put the front wheel at the rear.”
Frederic Vasseur future –
Hamilton: “I was just made aware of it before I got here, so I’ve not read the stories. It’s definitely not nice to hear that there are stories like that out there. Firstly, I love working with Fred. Fred’s the main reason I’m in this team and I got the opportunity to be here – for which I’m forever grateful. We’re in this together. We’re working hard in the background. Things aren’t perfect. But as I said, I’m here to work with the team and with Fred. I want Fred here. I do believe Fred is the person to take us to the top, and so that’s that. To me, it’s all nonsense what people have written. Most people don’t know what’s going on in the background. It isn’t all easy, like, it’s not the smoothest sailing. We are having to make changes and there’s a lot of work to do. Naturally there’s a lot of pressure because we want to win, but that’s not any part of the discussion at the moment.
“Again, I don’t think that’s on the cards as far as I’m aware, and that’s certainly not something I would be supportive of. Embedding new people, new personnel – whether it’s a driver or whether it’s engineers or people who run an organization – it takes time to adjust, and the impact that has is significant. That’s not part of the discussion. I’m here to win with Fred. He has my full support. And also, to everyone writing stories of me considering not racing – I literally only just started here with Ferrari. I’m here for several years, and I’m here for the long haul. There’s no question where my head’s at and what I’m working towards achieving with this team. So, there’s zero doubts. Please stop making stuff up.”
Vasseur: “I have to stay calm because I will have to finish to the stewards. It’s some Italian media, 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. 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! 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 anymore about this stupidity.”
Charles Leclerc future –
Leclerc: “I am very surprised, I mean, I have no idea where it is coming from. So I’d rather just ignore it, and I’ve never said anything like this in the last few races. If anything, I keep saying how much I love the team and want to bring Ferrari back to the top, so yeah, I was just surprised. We surely have a vision that all three of us, Fred, Lewis, and I, in order to try and get back to winning, and we’ve been working to put that together. This is for sure our plan, and we shall stick to it.”
Vasseur: “It’s a good example to speak about Charles. I think Charles has a long-term contract with us. Every single interview from the beginning of the season, he’s telling that he wants to stay with Ferrari. He wants to win with Ferrari. His future is with Ferrari. But every single Monday, we have an article telling that “Charles will go next year,” “Charles will…” At one stage, I don’t know what we have to do. I’m sorry—I can’t repeat every single weekend the same things. But it is like it is. Now, with Lewis and Charles, I think we have a good relationship altogether. We have a clear target. We know that we have to work. We know that we have to push. But the mood in the team is very good. And that’s the basis if you want to recover and to win. Everything is there. Everything is on the table to do a good job, and altogether, we are working well.”
Team situation, championship, pressure –
Leclerc: “I think none of us is satisfied with how it’s going at the moment. That’s clear. We came into the season thinking that we had chances to challenge McLaren and Red Bull in order to win the championship. That has not been the case so far. However, it’s fair also to say that I don’t think many people understood, apart from McLaren. They’ve done a huge step forward compared to last year, a lot more than anybody else. If we compare ourselves to our other competitors apart from McLaren, it’s not like we are having a shocking season. We are second in the constructors. As a matter of fact, this is not good enough. We are not happy with that and we need to understand what McLaren found. We also need to be careful about everything that is going on around the team because sometimes that can change the perception of someone’s season.
“I think McLaren is doing an outstanding job. We are absolutely not happy with our situation, however, I feel like we just need to find ourselves as we are just like Mercedes, just like Red Bull needs to find pace that McLaren has found. We are already putting ourselves under a lot of pressure, and then there are some rumours, which of course is not something which you want to hear, but the pressure is normal when you are working for Ferrari. Second is never good enough, but we are all aware of it, so it is not like the outside pressure is having any influence on the pressure we put on ourselves first. We want to be winning and as I keep saying it is not good enough but I am not the only one to say that, the team knows it is not good enough and that Ferrari should be winning, and that is what we are putting all of our efforts into, to try and bring Ferrari back to the top.
“McLaren is stronger at the moment, and it is up to us to react. We definitely need to forget what is said around the team but I think that is something that I got used to with the years, obviously there are times where you’ve got more rumours to deal with, mostly with you because the questions are directed to certain topics, and it is not always nice thing to do, but I understand it, and at the end of the day that’s how Ferrari is and has always been, so you’ve got to deal with it, but I don’t think we are affected by it.”
Vasseur: “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.”
Driver reaction, protect the team –
Vasseur: “Their reaction—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. 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. 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.”
Carlos Sainz (on Ferrari situation): “Same story as always, the moment that the results don’t click in Ferrari, there’s always finger-pointing by the media, and all this chaos happening. For me, it’s all about focusing on the process and delivering when it matters. But if you ask me, Fred, I have a great relationship with him. In the past, obviously, we went through a tough month where he didn’t want me and signed Lewis, but apart from that, we made peace about it, and I get on well, and I always rated him as a team principal and as a person. I can only talk about my time there when I left, and my feeling is that the team, the car, we felt like we were ready to fight for our championship.
“I thought, honestly, Ferrari could be in the fight for the championship this year. That’s what I communicated to Charles, [and] to the team. For me, everything was coming into place. I had zero involvement in the development of the 25’ cars, so I don’t know where they went with the balance, with the setup, and why they are struggling to get a result this year out of it. At the same time, probably, McLaren is just doing an excellent job. If McLaren is doing such a good job, then it doesn’t matter how good you do, there’s just someone performing at a very high level with two super strong drivers and doing very, very good in F1 right now, and that is McLaren.”
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