‘Sometimes the attacks are a bit personal’ – Vasseur responds to gossip about his future

Any Ferrari Formula 1 Team Principal is always in the spotlight, and in the case of Fred Vasseur the gossip ramped up over the Baku weekend in the wake of former Red Bull chief Christian Horner’s suggestion that he would welcome a role with the Maranello-based team.

Not surprisingly, that fuelled speculation that Vasseur is under pressure, and that Horner was a possible candidate to replace him.

Just before the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia weekend kicked off, Ferrari moved to dampen the speculation with a media call, where it was made clear that Vasseur had the full support of the team – and, most importantly, both its Chairman John Elkann and Chief Executive Officer Benedetto Vigna.

Then on Thursday in Sepang, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both backed their boss, with the former calling the chat about Vasseur “not nice” and “disrespectful”.

On Friday, Vasseur appeared in the press conference alongside Alpine's Flavio Briatore and Williams' James Vowles, with the Frenchman asked why it was felt the Ferrari media call had been necessary.

“You have to ask your colleagues,” said the Frenchman. “When you see the noise and all the rumours in the press all the week, I think as a team we need to work in serenity. And it was absolutely not the case.

“And I think the statement, it was mandatory to do something, or it could have been the same this weekend. But honestly, the big issue that we have today is to put stability, put serenity into the team, the focus that we need to have – and not to have this kind of question all day.”

While Hamilton backed Vasseur on Thursday, calling him a “fantastic leader”, he also indicated the Ferrari structure could be improved, noting that “there are changes that I would make, but I'm not going to talk about what those are.”

When reminded of Hamilton’s comments and asked if he felt changes were also required below him, Vasseur made it clear that any team has to evolve, referencing a previous answer from Briatore about bolstering Alpine’s technical leadership.

“First of all, the structure of the team, I think as Flavio said before, in the individual recruitment, at least, it's a [never-ending] story,” he insisted. “I think 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 to try to improve in the good and the bad moments.

“And honestly, the dynamic that we have, we have recruited a lot, as have the other teams.

“On the comment of Lewis, I think it would be a mistake to finger point someone or something or whatever. In the good moment, we are winning as a team, in the bad moment, we are suffering as a team, and I don't want to speak about single individual or whatever.

“We had a good beginning of the season. But for sure, it's not enough. We want to get more, we want to win more, we want to win the championship. But at the end of the day, we had a positive start, we are struggling the last couple of races, but we are hoping to come back with development.”

Pressed further on whether organisational changes were needed he said: “Honestly, 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. But I think it's true for me, and it's true for everybody on the grid that you always want to do more because of the DNA of what we are doing. But honestly, it has nothing to do with the organisation.”

Asked about the intense focus that’s always applied to a Ferrari boss, Vasseur stressed that he knew that would come with the territory.

“When you take the role, you know the positive and the negative side of the job,” he said. “I was expecting something like this. What is sometimes a bit unfair, and when you put someone under the bus, I'm there also to defend my team, my guys. As I said before, when we are winning, we are winning as a team.

“But when we are struggling, I'm there to defend them, to all of them. And I think it's the right attitude from everybody, from them to defend the Team Principal, from me to defend them when we are struggling.

“Now honestly, I knew that what I will get [with this job], I'm not surprised at all. But sometimes the attacks are a bit personal – and this is not good.”