The power of Italia media playing out at Ferrari – At this time of the Formula One season each year, the driver market rumours begin to hot up as we enter what’s called ‘the silly season.’ “Kimi to return to Ferrari” was an exclusive headline from TJ13 back in 2012, which come Ferrari’s home race in Monza was revealed by the Scuderia.
Yet presently the paddock whispers about driver changes are well worn. Mercedes persists with their annual routine of making their drivers wait to the last minute to known of they will be rehired for next season, something which finally did for Lewis Hamilton so he secured a ride with Ferrari guaranteed for at least two seasons.
It seems more and more likely that Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas will be returning to the sport to drive for new team Cadillac. This in itself is a shift from when the 11th team application was being made and the Andretti’s were making a big deal about recruiting an American born driver.
F1 Driver market sluggish in 2025
A new team needs experienced F1 drivers and a quick glance at the current championship table would explain why. Without exception, the rookie drivers who have experienced team mates all sit lower in the championship than the driver on the other side of the garage.
Aston Martin continue to make overtures to Max Verstappen, but Adrian Newey’s recent admission the team’s simulation tools are way out of correlation and it may two years for the art world from the F1 design guru to make it onto a workable track full size car.
The big seats are all but nailed down as despite Mercedes’ stringing along their drivers, it will almost definitely be Russell and Antonelli who continue for them next year. This is the case with McLaren and Ferrari and so the only top team conundrum which remains is the perennial issue of the second Red Bull seat.
While the driver market is hardly roaring into life, the Ferrari boss is making all the recruitment headlines during there European summer races. Now in his third season and with arguably one of the very best driver pairings on the grid, the Scuderia are nigh on 200 points behind McLaren with just ten race weekends of the season gone.
Ferrari huge 2025 mistake
Having had the fastest car over the final six race weekends in 2024, Ferrari took the highly unusual decision of starting from scratch with the SF-25. Speaking at the well attended Ferrari festive dinner, Fred Vasseur revealed: “Sometimes you don’t realise you’re taking risks until afterward. The car will be completely new; I think we’ll have less than 1% of the parts in common with the 2024 car. It’s a different project, but the same applies to everyone.”
Well thats not quite true. No other team built a completely new car for 2025, most opting for evolution as did championship winners McLaren. In the final year of a set of regulations this is almost lunacy to sanction and Ferrari’s current plight is directly linked with this decision.
Easy week the engineers in red continue to tinker remorselessly with the new 2025 components to find the sweet spot for the car. Whilst other teams mechanics are checking their data from 2024 and refining setup options based on last years information.
Both Ferrari’s being disqualified for technical reasons in China. had the Italian media incensed. La Stampa described it as “a catastrophe” whilst the Gazzetta cello Sport called the situation “a scandal.” Now the media is again ramping up its criticism of Ferrari, with Fred Vasseur and his lieutenants coming under fire.
Italian media collude with Ferrari chairman
The problem for incumbent drivers and team principals at Ferrari is the nepotistic nature of the relationship between Ferrari and the Italian sport’s media. FIAT who own the Italian racing brand also have investments in the publishing houses whose writers when about to report a scandal have checked with the Scuderia before publishing.
It is well known in Maranello that Enzo Ferraro used his relationship with the Agnellis, who were Ferrari investors and owned La Stampa, to mark a drivers card if he felt they were under performing. Today the situation at Ferrari is more complex, but Ralf Bach believes the same principles remain as he explains on F1-insiders YouTube channel.
Speaking about Fred Vasseur’s potential sacking, Bach suggests: “I think he has a real problem. Normally, you don’t have to take every story that circulates on the internet seriously, but in this case, if you know the background at Ferrari and the politics at Fiat.
“Corriere della Sera and Gazzetta dello Sport released this story almost at the same time, that something was happening, that there were already other candidates as replacements and that the big Fiat boss and Ferrari president John Elkann is already talking to people who could and would have been a replacement.
No words of support from Elkann for Vasseur
“If it hadn’t been for these two newspapers, you would say, yes, these are only rumours. But from my own experiences, I know that Fiat is also a shareholder in the publishing house that publishes these newspapers.
“That means that if they write a story like that, they must check with the publisher. The publisher will then talk to John Elkann, who wants to do this and that, what do you think, and it’s like a blessing.
“That’s the problem, that it could mean something. I’m quite sure that Elkann found out about this story beforehand and didn’t stop it. The message is that he’s under pressure, he is being watched by John Elkann, who is looking for a successor but is not quite there yet, but it is the beginning of the end, you could say.”
Even without the co-ordinated reporting of Vasseur being in trouble, the simple fact his chairman has not come out to refute the claims of his team boss’s imminent departure. All that remains is that Elkann now offers Vasseur a public “vote of confidence” which every English football manager will tell you when it happens to them, it is almost always the kiss of death.
Red Bull boss identifies key race weekend for title defence
The Formula One season is approaching the half way point and with ten of the twenty four race weekends complete McLaren are clearly leading the charge on both championships. Yet Red Bull Racing are desperate to see their star driver claim that elusive fifth consecutive drivers’ championship, something only Michael Schumacher has ever achieved.
Last time out in Canada, McLaren looked on the back foot for the first time and whilst the F1 constructors’ title is almost in the bag for the second year in a row, there is plenty of time and points available for the picture in the drivers’ championship for the picture to change.
Up next is Austria and the Red Bull Ring has been something of a lucky charm for Max Verstappen. He has won has won four of the last seven Grand Prix in Styria and that count would have been one higher but for an unfortunate coming together last year with Lando Norris…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
