Ferrari move to end speculation over Vasseur's future amid Horner talk – plus Barretto analysis

Ferrari have moved to quash speculation surrounding Team Principal Fred Vasseur's future by confirming the Italian team have made their "choices already" and they have "full confidence" in the Frenchman and his team.

Vasseur joined Ferrari at the start of the 2023 season and during that tenure, he has faced frequent speculation surrounding his role.

The latest came over the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend following comments from former Red Bull boss Christian Horner – who is promoting his new book – in The Times newspaper, where he said Ferrari would be the "dream" destination for him.

It comes at a time where Ferrari sit second in the Teams' Championship behind Mercedes but have failed to score a podium in any of the last five events.

Addressing the chatter on Saturday in Baku, Vasseur said: "We are not working in the perfect serenity.

"For me, first, but for everybody in the team, for the media, for 50% of the questions [to be] about this, it's a bit of a frustrating situation.

"We are fighting for P2 in the championship, and at the end of the day, we are all speaking a lot about this, and even for the guys in the garage, to discuss about this.

"But it is what it is, it's not in my hands. Mr Horner is looking for a job – that everybody knows – everywhere. But what can I do? Just try to do my best to push the team, to rise them to be motivated, focus on what is better today."

And on Tuesday morning, ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Ferrari called a hastily arranged briefing with selected media to throw their support behind Vasseur.

"In the recent days there has been increasing speculation surrounding Scuderia Ferrari HP and particularly dedicated to its leadership," said Chief Communication Officer Maria Conti. "So Ferrari’s position is clear, [it] has not changed.

"Ferrari has made its choices already. We have full confidence in Fred Vasseur and in his team and we continue to do so. At this time, it's really important that the team remains united and cohesive, and we focused all the energy on the work ahead.

"Ferrari has always attracted extraordinary interest and it's only natural that many professionals aspire to be part of it. It is a reflection of the strength of what Ferrari really represents.

"This is why we really want to avoid, and we do not intend to fuel, speculation or comment on assumption coming from outside the company. It's not just related to the story with The Times of Mr Horner, but in general, there is a lot of speculation about that.

"So again, we have confidence in Fred Vasseur and his team, and we continue to do so. And the position is clear, but not just now, we already confirmed in the past.

"Our focus now is on the work. We would like to be focused on the future. And this is always the Ferrari spirit and the spirit of our founder – humility and complete focus in the future.

"We are doing that today because we would like to avoid that the next weekend in Malaysia will be focused only on this kind of gossip and speculation. We would like to be focused on the race, on the performance, on the team, on Fred."

Ferrari said they have made this statement because they could "see the storm of communication [on social media] was increasing when normally it is going down" and they want to focus on the race at Sepang rather than the speculation because the "different stories" about Fred are "not useful".

The Italian added this statement is aligned with Ferrari's top management of Chairman John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna.

Lawrence Barretto says...

This was an unusual move by Ferrari to hold an impromptu media briefing with select media regarding speculation or, as they called it, gossip – but it was a bold move to try and shield Vasseur from the barrage of distracting chatter regarding his future.

Such speculation around a Ferrari Team Principal is nothing new. Every chief that has led the Prancing Horse has faced such pressure from external forces, but it feels like it's been more relentless than usual during Vasseur's time in charge.

It is true that Ferrari have not won a World Championship since 2008 and thus by that metric, Vasseur has not delivered.

However, it would be deeply unfair to suggest the Frenchman is solely to blame for this. The fact they have waited nearly two decades shows how hard it is to win the world title.

Vasseur has come into the team and given them stability. He is a big reason why Charles Leclerc has chosen to commit his future to the team into the 2030s and he is a big reason why Lewis Hamilton chose to leave Mercedes – with whom he won six of his seven world titles – to join Ferrari.

He's restructured several areas of the team and emboldened his technical team to take risks.

Nonetheless, there have been countless stories over the last three-and-a-half years suggesting that Vasseur's future was in doubt – but he has successfully fended off such threats and remains in post, with the backing of senior management Elkann and Vigna, with whom he has a very good relationship.

Vasseur has enough on his plate trying to mould the team into championship contenders without the incessant chatter about his future, so it is credit to him that he is continuing to improve the team while spreading his wings to shield his staff from the consistent uncertainty from external forces.

There's no doubt this is exhausting, irritating and distracting – so it's no surprise that at times, when questioned about it, Vasseur gets annoyed.

This latest statement is designed to try and alleviate some of that pressure on him, to help him get on with his day job.

Vasseur is making progress. His team fought for the Teams' Championship until the final race of the season in 2024, and the Italian squad delivered a string of innovations after being encouraged to be bold and take risks by Vasseur knowing he would protect them if it didn't work.

That yielded a package that allowed Leclerc and Hamilton to secure a win apiece this year – and while they have been out-developed by McLaren in recent races, they remain second in the Teams' Championship and the closest challengers to pace-setters Mercedes.

They also appear to be in a rhythm of adding performance to the car every time they bring an update – something they have not been able to do for several years. It's true that they haven't done as good a job as Mercedes and McLaren – and now Red Bull in recent races – but they are very much in the mix.

Ferrari is bigger than one person. Their success relies on the whole team functioning as one unit - something that is far harder to do at one of world's most famous sports teams. Vasseur knows that and, from what we've seen so far in the way he runs and defends the team, is one of the best-placed to achieve that.

Vasseur knows he needs to do more, but it will take time.

Ferrari will hope this gives Vasseur and the team some breathing space to focus on the performance, rather than worrying about uncertainty. If they can do that and build more momentum, there have been enough signs so far that Vasseur and his team can bring the crown back to Maranello in the future.