Vasseur comments on speculations: “It would be a huge mistake to start to not be unified”
Written by Bo Helmus
For a while, rumours have been going around about the future of Frédéric Vasseur, especially since Christian Horner announced that he would like to take over his job. Just ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari organised a press meeting to express their faith in the Frenchman.
At the team principal press conference, Vasseur talks about the events of the past week: “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. I think the statement was mandatory to do something, or it would have been the same this weekend.
But honestly, the big issue that we have today is the stability, the serenity into the team, the focus that we need to have, and not to have this kind of question all the day.”
Rival team principal James Vowels added to the discussion: “Normally we beat each other up and put knives in our backs, but Ferrari is in the best place it’s been in the championship for a while. They have innovation on the car this year with a rear wing and exhaust blowing that we’ve all copied as a result of it. It’s a team that’s doing brilliantly. So, I mean, for me personally, there is no question that Fred is the right person to do this.”
Every time things are running less smoothly in a team, rumours start going around about people, especially bosses, getting fired. After a pretty good start to the season, Ferrari is experiencing a bit of a rough patch. The prancing horses haven’t finished on a podium for five races now, and they have to start looking behind them in the constructor’s championship rather than ahead.
Vasseur comments on this phenomenon: “As James said before, when you take the role [of team principal], you know the positive and the negative side of the job. I was expecting something like this. What is sometimes a bit unfair is when you put someone under the bus, and 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 all of them. 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. Honestly, I knew what I would get on that. I’m not surprised at all, but sometimes the attacks are a bit personal. It’s not good. We need friendly media.”
Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton defended their boss in the interviews on media day. The Brit has worked with Vasseur since his arrival at the team, and he can only praise the Frenchman: “People can continue with the negative narrative but inside, everyone is working really hard. Fred is the guy to lead us, he's doing a fantastic job. If you look at the history, how many people they've swapped out in that role and I feel like it's in a better place than it's been before, but ultimately, it's not a one man situation.
“It's lots and lots of people coming together and if you want to point fingers, point them somewhere else. There's people above that are also part of it as well. It's a lot of people. I feel like we should take things away from this message, Fred's in his position, he's not going anywhere and I'm here to stay with him and I still believe fully in where we're going.”
“On a race weekend, other teams make mistakes, no one really says much about those but we make the same mistake and it's ten times worse for Ferrari, for whatever reason, and that's just how it is.
“On one side, I respect that they want to hold Ferrari to the highest level but ultimately, [we're] all human beings, we're all trying our hardest and showing up every weekend in, weekend out.
“We're second in the Constructors' Championship, a huge improvement from last year already, and that's with a deficit on power of an average four tenths every single weekend. Sometimes it's six tenths, and we've still been delivering really decent performances, so that highlights just how great a job people at the factory have done.
“I think all the negativity takes away from that. Of course we're not where we want to be but if you go from last year, you don't go from last year's experience straight to number one. It's a process and I think we've built a good foundation this year, we need to continue to build on it. We're not perfect yet but I do believe we can get there.”
“I'm happy with my treatment,” Hamilton continued. “Fred has been fantastic working with me and I think our relationship as a whole, even with the bosses, is in a much better place than it ever was. Of course, people making comments have absolutely no clue what they're talking about ultimately, because they're not inside the team.
“What's happening inside the team, how it's structured, what the weaknesses are, obviously I'm in the team and I know all those. I'm not going to speak on them but I will continue to try and work with those people that are in power to make the changes.
“Making changes is not a quick thing, people weren't always willing to do so early on but Fred has done a lot of the changes that I've asked for and there are more for us to do.”
Hamilton’s teammate Leclerc stands behind his principal as well: “I think it's very clear the relationship I have with Fred but it goes a lot further than that. It's not only about a relationship but it's also about his capabilities and I think he's exceptional at what he does and I fully trust in Fred.
“Inside the team it's always been extremely clear that Fred has always had the support but for whatever reason, every three or four years there are those crazy rumours around the team. I've been [with the team for] quite a few years so I'm unfortunately getting used to these kinds of events.
“It's not easy and I don't think it's respectful either because we are all here trying to do our absolute best. Sometimes we will do mistakes and sometimes we will do great things. But for people to take the opportunity whenever there's something that we could have done slightly better to start those rumours is just not nice.
“But one thing is sure: Fred has got all our support and we are very proud of having him with us inside the team and I hope that we can bring the team back on top as soon as possible in order to stop those silly rumours.”
The question if Ferrari needs a stronger leadership has been raised. Due to a lack of clarity, mistakes will happen. Not too long ago, the Ferrari’s almost took each other out of the race in Italy. Having clear rules might help to avoid those scary moments.
Vasseur comments on the structural organisation at Ferrari: “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 too.
“I think it’s the DNA of what we are doing, to not take a success as a final situation, but try to improve in the good and the bad moments. Honestly, the dynamic that we have, we recruited a lot, but as the other teams, and we are trying to push the limit of everything.
“On the comment of Lewis, I think it would be a mistake to finger-point someone or something or whatever. In the good moments, we are winning as a team. In the bad moments, we are suffering as a team, and I don’t want to speak about a single individual or whatever. Honestly, I think it would be a huge mistake to start to not be unified.
“We had a good beginning of the season. 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 soon with development and to be back into the pace.”
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