Prior to the Canadian Grand Prix, it seemed that the pressure began to build on Fred Vasseur. It came as a surprise, given the general steps taken since he came to 2023, so close to winning the constructors championship last year and looked good to challenge McLaren this season.
But what was not surprising was the disappointment in Ferrari’s 2025 version, which delivered a long way from McLaren and still to win a race, although they still had the second place in the rankings again.
One of the Italian reports claimed that the next three racing weekends would be crucial for the future of Vasseur, and yet, despite only one stage in that run, we arrived in Budapest to the News of a contract extension for the Ferrari -Team -director.
Whether the timing was simply due to the passing of his previous deal or not, the dedication is a symbol of Ferrari’s belief in Vasseur, which he still leads the team in the right direction. And on Thursday, two of the most important employees he must support – his drivers – agree.
“I’m really, very happy,” said Charles Leclerc. “I mean, it is not that it comes as a surprise, but especially in the past month there were quite a few rumors, as always the case around the team, so finally the official news is important and I am really happy.”
“I only heard about it yesterday,” said Lewis Hamilton. “And you have heard my positive comments about Fred – I told everyone. I told you before that it was the right choice. Fred signed me here and we want to work together.”
An accusation that is often leveled at Ferrari is that the team is investigated more intensively than others when it does not win, which leads to knee-shock reactions, where the emotion is described as “fairly intensely” by Leclerc. But Hamilton seeks positives that front in terms of the desire to succeed within the team, and he believes that Vasseur has a similar feature as his former boss Toto Wolff in how to use that.
“It just tries to understand the environment in which you are,” said Hamilton. “You have to adjust, and I think the people you work with will ultimately learn to adapt to you.
“Only everyone just wants to do better and find ways to be better, and that’s why I know that this team absolutely has every ingredient that is needed to succeed. I really believe in that – that’s why I signed.
“The only thing I can say from my previous experience is that I remember the real positive when I worked with Toto, how he could use individuals – finding out how people work best, how to get the most out of someone. So with me, for example, he created freedom for me to be able to express myself, and that enabled me to be the best version of me, for example,
“That is what he would do there. And I think Fred is very similar in that respect. I still try to learn how Fred likes to work, but I have absolutely faith in Fred, as I have always said.”
The intensity of his fans is part of the Ferrari Allure, but also creates unique pressure when the results of the team do not achieve expectations. Lars Baron/Getty images
While Hamilton is new in Ferrari and Vasseur mentions as one of the main reasons he became a member of, Leclerc has seen the Scuderia that is operational under both Mattia Binotto and Vasseur. Leclerc says that one of the strengths of his current boss is to have been referred to the speculation about the future of Vasseur.
“Without comparing the different eras, I think Fred has an incredible vision and I think what is very difficult within Ferrari is that the emotion is very much of the daily job,” he said. “Because Italian people in general – and that makes Ferrari so special – are extremely passionate about Ferrari. But Fred really knows how to leave his emotions aside and a clear vision of where we are, regardless of how much noise there is in the team and this is very, very important.
“Apart from that, he clearly has many more qualities. One of them is also to extract the maximum from every person in the factory and this, when you put everything together, makes a big difference.”
According to Leclerc, the ability to cut out the noise is something that Vasseur is not only good in himself, but also a characteristic that he has passed on to the Ferrari team to help prevent it from falling into negative spirals like sometimes in the past.
“He definitely changed the way we work on different things,” said Leclerc. “But again, I think Fred made the biggest difference [with] His general vision. And this, he is certainly embedded in the team and that is very, very important.
“Like I said, I feel that the beauty of Ferrari is the fact that it is emotional, it is always pretty intense, but it can also harm us in some ways and especially when there are more difficult times. Fred has always had very cool blood in those moments and has helped the team to just be a little lucid. That is probably the biggest thing that Fred to the team brought.”
So why was his future ever questioned in the Italian media? For Leclerc it comes from the expectations that come in 2025, and the enormous interest that ended at both Hamilton’s arrival and the form where Ferrari ended last season.
“I think the fact that there was so much hype around the team when we started the season at the time, I think everyone thought we would win the championship,” said Leclerc. “And unfortunately that was not the case.
“Then there were some rumors in the neighborhood and that took a bigger than what we had wanted. But these are not things that we can control and I think it is part of Ferrari. It has always been the case and it will never change. So we can’t really concentrate on that. I think the best we can do is try and don’t think about those things.”
That is very much a mantra that Vasseur preaches, and will continue to work for a number of years.
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