Vasseur urges Ferrari unity after Horner speculation threatens Maranello calm

Fred Vasseur has urged Ferrari to block out external noise and maintain focus after a week of intense speculation about his future, telling reporters at the Bahrain Grand Prix — held this year in Malaysia — that pointing fingers within the team would be a “big mistake”.

The turbulence began when former Red Bull chief Christian Horner told The Times that the Ferrari job would be a dream role. Though Horner stopped short of suggesting he was actively pursuing it, the remarks ignited a media frenzy, particularly in Italy, forcing Ferrari to act. President John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna issued a rare public statement reaffirming their confidence in Vasseur.

“This is not just related to the story in The Times of Mr Horner, but in general, there is a lot of speculation about Fred,” the statement read. “We have confidence in Fred Vasseur and in his team, and we continue to do so. The position is clear, but not just now — we already confirmed this in the past.”

Vasseur acknowledged the statement was necessary to prevent the distraction from bleeding into race week. “When you see the noise and all the rumours in the press all week, as a team we need to work in serenity and it was absolutely not the case,” he said at a press conference. “The statement was mandatory to do something or it would have been the same this weekend. The big issue we have today is the stability, the serenity in the team, the focus that we need to have.”

Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc publicly backed their team principal on Thursday. Hamilton, however, hinted that the organisational structure around Vasseur could benefit from adjustment, without elaborating. “There is a structure that’s been there for some time; whether or not that needs looking at moving forward… There are changes that I would make, but I’m not going to talk about what those are,” the seven-time world champion said, drawing a comparison to the setup at his former team. “Toto [Wolff] is in a different position to Fred and the structure’s a lot different.”

Vasseur pushed back on any suggestion of an organisational problem at Maranello, insisting the focus must remain on closing out the season strongly and pushing forward development on both the 2027 car and power unit. Ferrari has shown improved form under the new 2026 regulations, giving the team reason for optimism heading into the final stretch of the campaign.