Italian media puts pressure on Ferrari team boss Vasseur: is it justified?

Frederic Vasseur is in his third season as team boss of Ferrari. The down-to-earth Frenchman took over from Mattia Binotto, who was sidelined after a disappointing 2022 campaign. How high the bar is set at Ferrari was clear then: Binotto was fired after a second place in the constructors' championship in 2022.

Yet there was more to the decision to move on from Mattia Binotto. The team had primarily missed the biggest chance to become world champions again. While Red Bull Racing and Mercedes were dueling for the world title throughout 2021, Ferrari had all the time to prepare for the new 2022 regulations. That Red Bull still emerged as the stronger team that year was the last straw.

That was indeed a last straw, as the strategic blunders were also a topic of discussion week in, week out. For Vasseur, the main goal was to restore peace and calm in the team historically driven by passion and emotion.

Where Vasseur seemed to succeed in this mission in his first two years, the strategic errors have not completely disappeared. For a top team with the biggest budget of all teams, the Italian racing stable often acts like a backmarker team during races. Thus, no real progress under Vasseur is visible on that front.

Vasseur's arrival has also not led to an influx of new top people. In fact, the technical core that was still in place when Vasseur came to Ferrari has since left. Replacements are still not found. Where every team can present a technical figurehead, Ferrari has not had one since the departure of Enrico Cardile.

Despite those flaws, Ferrari was very close to the first world title since 2008. In Abu Dhabi, Ferrari still had a chance at the world title, but it ultimately went to McLaren. It sparked hope that Ferrari could contend for the world title again in 2025, especially with the arrival of Lewis Hamilton.

And to that hype, neither Ferrari nor Lewis Hamilton have yet to live up. Hamilton seems to often feel misunderstood within the team, with discussions over the board radio being a consequence. According to the Daily Mail, Ferrari would like to get rid of his race-engineer, but no replacement can be found.

Ferrari is, against all odds, second in the constructors' standings, but the gap to McLaren is already almost unbridgeable. How is it that Ferrari went from title contender at the end of 2024, to a clear second in such a short period of time?

Many people point to the massive technical changes from Ferrari from 2024 to 2025. While all teams made minor adjustments for the last year of the regulations, Ferrari completely changed the concept, especially the front suspension. It has not proven to be a resounding success yet.

On top of that, there are doubts about 2026. The engine is especially a big question mark. While Mercedes wanted no changes to the engine regulations for 2026, Ferrari, like Red Bull, was open to the discussion about a V10 engine and wanted a different ratio between electric power and combustion engine power.

While the performance will only be visible in 2026, the fact that Ferrari was open to other ideas shows a lack of confidence in their own product. Moreover, GPblog understood earlier that Ferrari was the only manufacturer working with biofuel, instead of synthetic fuel like the rest. Ferrari is now rumored to have switched to synthetic fuel, but it again showed uncertainty within their own factory.

It is not surprising that the Italian media is ramping up the pressure. The performance is disappointing, the things Vasseur was supposed to improve seem not to be improved at first glance, and there are concerns about the situation for 2026. Add to that the promised star not delivering, and you have a so-called crisis.

In Montreal, Ferrari's clear denial of the rumors about a potential departure of Vasseur was labeled as ‘not true’. Even more, there was considerable astonishment at how journalists, in the eyes of the Italian team, sometimes completely invent things, before again stating that there is absolutely nothing to it."It's not even worth responding to," was even the message.

Even Lewis Hamilton has now spoken out clearly against the attack by the Italian press. He calls for an end to the spreading of nonsense.