During the F1 Hungarian GP weekend, Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Fredric Vasseur, spoke about the team’s progress and the challenges for the rest of the season.
The Ferrari Team Principal recently extended his contract with the Italian team on a multi-year deal. It has not been revealed how many years the new extended contract involves.
Vasseur began his leadership role with the team at the start of the 2023 season, and while his time has come with progress it has not been without hardships. The news arrived after plenty speculation regarding Vasseur’s future at the legendary team as the team have not been experiencing the easiest run in recent races. However, the Frenchman hopes to lead the team to a better season in the near future.
Vasseur insistent on fighting until the end
In an exclusive interview with Formula One presenter, Lawrence Barretto, the Team Principal revealed the honour that comes with working at Ferrari, stating: “My job is probably the most exciting position in the paddock, if you’re able to win in F1, it is mega, but to win with Ferrari is something very exciting.”
When speaking about the contract extension, Vasseur expressed:
“It’s a good step into the process. We had a couple of discussions and there were some rumours in the press the last couple of weeks. It’s not easy for the stability of the team and for the mood of the team but now this is behind us.
It’s important, it’s a good step. We have to be ready for the last part of the season. We are fighting with Mercedes and Red Bull for P2 and we want to win some races until the end. The 2026 project is a huge challenge that we have to be all fully aligned and all together to manage it.”
Ferrari is currently P2 in the constructors standings. However, it appears to be a tight fight between the Italian team, Mercedes, and Red Bull. With McLaren dominating the season with 559 points, Ferrari are a distant second with 260 points.
The closest team to McLaren, Ferrari is 299 points behind the Papaya team. Hence explaining Ferrari’s focus on the P2 spot and challenging Mercedes and Red Bull, as opposed to McLaren.
Takes time to achieve the victory
With being a leader at a historic team like Ferrari, also comes pressure. The legendary team have established themselves as the most successful team in terms of championship wins. As they have won the constructors championship 16 times. However their last constructors victory came in 2008. It is getting closer to two decades since Ferrari cinched the title. However, it is undoubtable the team is putting in hard work to get back to the top.
The Italian teams’ Team Principal insists that building up to success in Formula 1 takes time.
“I’m really convinced that it’s taking time, it’s taking time at Ferrari, but everywhere in general if you have a look at the good story of F1 that when Christian [Horner] joined Red Bull or when Jean [Todt] joined Ferrari, before all these good success stories [it] took time before the first win.
You need a couple of years to build up a team, to recruit people that you want to have with you, and then it takes also time to work together. We want to be very agile in F1, but the reality is that we have a lot of inertia.”
Vasseur continued on to explain that in order to achieve success, the team must also be focused on consistent progress with a goal in mind. Stating: “We have a clear target, a clear goal. Everybody in the company is aligned on this project and pushing in the same direction, and this is probably the best feeling when you have a goal and that everybody is convinced that we can achieve it, we can go for it and that we are all pushing in the same direction.”
Progressing in the right direction
Moreover, the Team Principal confessed that Ferrari want to be back on top again, grabbing as many victories as possible. With a clear goal and a winning mindset, the team continues to move in the right direction, according to Vasseur:
“It’s not a secret that Ferrari want to win again, but we have a target and the goal is very, very clear. We’ll put everything to achieve it. It’s enough as a target that we all want to win the championship. We did a decent step forward everywhere, but now we need perhaps a bit more time to put everything together and the 2026 challenge it’s a good opportunity.”
Additionally, Vasseur explained the passion that comes with working with the historical team. With the dedicated Tifosi adoring the team and craving an even more successful future, chasing victories becomes an all the more rewarding progress.
“First I love to work with the guys, it’s a team with a lot of passion, a lot of emotion, and this on the day per day is an ultra-positive motivation. Now perhaps we have to put a bit more processes and calm approach to motivate a little bit the extreme attitude, but I think it’s good. It’s much easier to manage like this.
I love to work in this kind of environment with these people and I’m really convinced that we are going on the right direction and that we’ll do it.”
Hamilton as the new addition to the team
Ferrari had high hopes of winning the constructors, and the driver’s title, in the 2025 season. Considering their incredible driver line up of 7 time world champion Lewis Hamilton, and the talented Charles Leclerc, the team was ready to fight. Unfortunately, the season has not been as successful as they were hoping. After last season, where Ferrari were only 14 points behind McLaren in the constructors fight. The Italian team were hoping this would be their year. However, the papaya team have proved to be too dominant for anyone to have a fighting chance this season. Leaving Ferrari settling with fighting for second.
Seven time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, has been heavily criticized this year as he has been experiencing struggles settling into his new team. Although it should not be surprising that one would need time before achieving success. As Hamilton spent the last nearly two decades driving Mercedes powered cars.
The champion has made progress this year as he is still getting used to being a Ferrari driver. He will undoubtedly find the rhythm as he settles in more. Vasseur was a big factor as to why Hamilton joined Ferrari. The two worked together even before his Formula 1 days. They have known each other for several decades and that trust still connects them.
The Frenchman acknowledged that settling into a new team is not easy. He remains positive that Hamilton will find his way back to the top.
“I think perhaps that we underestimate the challenge for Lewis at the beginning of the season. He spent almost 10 years with McLaren and then 10 years with Mercedes. That’s almost 20 years with Mercedes in the same environment.
It was a huge change for Lewis in terms of culture, in terms of people around him, in terms of software, in terms of car, in terms of every single topic was a big change perhaps that we underestimate this, Lewis and myself. But I’m very, very pleased because the last four or five races he was back into the pace.”
Leclerc always keeps pushing
Additionally to showing support to Hamilton, Vasseur praised Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. The talented Monegasque grabbed a magnificent pole at the Hungarian GP qualifying. Proving that even when the car is not where it should be, Leclerc still finds a way to deliver magic. His pole position surprised everyone, even Leclerc himself. He constantly manages to put the SF-25 in places it has no business being in considering both its qualifying and race pace.
The eight-time Grand Prix winner added another pole to his record, together making it 27 pole positions. While he is still chasing his first victory of the year, Leclerc continues to impress as he is driving at an incredibly high-level. Despite not having the car to do so under him.
“He’s doing well,” says Vasseur as he speaks about Leclerc.
“For sure the season is not easy, it is not easy for Charles, it is not easy for the team. It’s much easier to manage for the driver when the car is flying and we had some issues at the beginning, but the reaction was positive and very good.“
The team principle continued on to praise Leclerc’s effort and grit, expressing:
“In this kind of season when you have a lot of expectation and you struggle at the beginning it’s very easy to give up and he never gave up. He was always pushing, pushing the team, pushing himself and it was a very strong collaboration with Lewis. This is very positive because it’s in in this kind of situation and journey that you see the reaction of the people.”
As the F1 summer break arrives, it offers the team the opportunity to reset before Zandvoort at the end of August. The Ferrari team will be giving it their all to come back on top.
