Ferrari executive chairman John Elkann has opened up about the real reason for extending team principal Fred Vasseur‘s contract, and highlighted that the team needs to have a strong start to the second half of the 2025 season.
Vasseur joined Ferrari in 2023, following which the outfit witnessed significant growth. The 2024 season saw Ferrari bring the Constructors’ Championship fight to the last lap of the season finale, but missed out on the championship win to McLaren by just 14 points.
While several rumors suggested that Ferrari was looking to part ways with Vasseur, Elkann revealed that the stability and results achieved under his term were something that the team preferred. He told F1.com:
“We’ve really worked well with Fred, and when you work well, it’s important to continue working well.
“The reality is that from the basis of these years, we all want to build more, and we know that, in Formula 1, times are such that what you really need is engagement, trust, and make sure that the time is there with you.
“The natural evolution of the relationship with Fred, that has been a very strong relationship and one that you can feel, and it’s palpable in Ferrari, just the importance of how stability makes a big impact on results. That’s really what we all want.”
However, Ferrari has more catching up to do this season, given that it is placed second in the championship but with a massive points gap of 268 points to the leading team, McLaren. Speaking ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix before the start of the summer break, Elkann said:
“It’s the last race of the first part of the season, so it’s a good moment to be here with the team.
“It’s a good moment to reflect on what has been a hard start and, more importantly, just put the right foundations forward for the second part of the season, and really make sure that everyone goes energised to have a good break, which is needed, and really come back strong in the Netherlands.”
Asked about the current state of the team with Vasseur, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc, Elkann said that they can achieve great things when they work together. He added:
“We’ve had a rough season, and that is why it is really important to ensure that we end well and we start the second half very strong and full of energy.
“Ferrari wants to win, has won, will win, when it’s able to get everyone together. What’s important in Ferrari is not the individual, but it’s the individuals.
“Those individuals, when they work together, they can do incredible things. That has been very much the case in Formula 1.
“We all remember when we were victorious, and we were victorious because there was a very strong sense that incredible individuals – from our engineers, our mechanics, our pilots, our team principal – were really individuals that worked together.
“So it’s not about the individual, but it’s about the collective effort of great individuals who can achieve even more together.”
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