Ferrari president breaks silence on lack of titles – The Formula One Ferrari team are the only racing outfit which has competed in the sport since the off in 1960. The Scuderia have won more races and championships than another team and the iconic red livery evokes memories of yesteryear and all the great drivers who have raced for the Maranello based team.
In the days of unlimited spending in F1, Ferrari have mostly been capable of matching the budget of any other team on the grid. Yet it has been seventeen long years since the team under the guidance of Stefano Domenicali won the constructors’ championship, the year Lewis Hamilton took his first drivers’ title with McLaren.
The Scuderia have come close to glory in the intervening era even in 2024, Leclerc and Sainz came close to taking the constructor’s championship closing down a 79 point gap across the final six race weekends to just 14 come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.
Ferrari strange choice
For this reason and with seven times champion Lewis Hamilton joining the Maranello squad, hopes were high the team would continue their upwards trajectory in 2025. Yet a decision was take in the final year of the current set of car design regulations to build an entirely new car for 2025 which has clearly not cut the mustard.
Whilst other teams refined their 2024 challengers over last winter, at the Ferrari festive lunch team boss Fred Vasseur announced to the assembled media. “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.” And the results have been underwhelming.
The team were humiliated at round two in China, where both their carswerz disqualified for technical infringements following the Grand Prix on Sunday. Charles Leclerc with his P3 in Belgium has now claimed five podiums across the first thirteen rounds while his new team mate has a best finish of fourth.
Fred Vasseur has come under significant pressure in the Italian media, who called on John Elkann to either extend his contract which ended at the close of 2025 or sack him and find a replacement. Coming into the final race before the annual summer shutdown, Ferrari finally revealed that Vasseur would remain in the charge of the team with a new “muli-year” contract.
Elkann speaks out
An upgrade last tine out in Belgium appears to have improved the competitiveness of the SF-25 as Leclerc found it relatively simple to keep Max Verstappen behind during the Grand Prix. In practice in Budapest this weekend, Ferrari have looked to be second quickest with Charles Leclerc third on the timesheets in both sessions on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton said in Hungary he is looking forward to the summer break after an “intense” season to date and one which has seen the longest run in his career without a podium extended to fifteen race weekends. Lewis admits this sad statistic plays on his mind: “Of course it does,” he said. “I think about it every day.”
John Elkann gave a rare interview in Budapest to assembled media to confirm the decision to extend Vasseur’s contract. “We’ve really worked well with Fred, and when you work well, it’s important to continue working well,” said Elkann. The Ferrari head honcho went on to explain the importance of continuity in the F1 team’s progress together with an emphasis on team work – to make the dream work, as they say.
“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.
Vasseur a different king of Ferrari boss
“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.”
This has not always been the Ferrari way, with the team having four team principals from 2014 to prior to Vasseur’s arrival in just nine years. As Charles Leclerc put diplomatically when asked about Vasseur’s contract extension, Ferrari has not been the easiest of the F1 competitors to manage, due to Italian passion and a related stubbornness in individuals to bend to the needs of the common cause.
“Without going into comparing the different eras, Fred has an incredible vision. What’s very difficult within Ferrari is the emotion is very much part of the daily job because Italian people in general, and that’s what makes Ferrari so special, are extremely passionate about Ferrari,” revealed the Monegasque to Sky F1.
“Fred really knows how to leave his emotions aside and have a clear vision of where we are at no matter how much noise there is around the team. This is very, very important. Apart from that, he’s got many more qualities. One of them is also to extract the maximum out of every single person at the factory and this, when you put everything together, it makes a big difference.”
Changes rung in Maranello
Leclerc has know two other Ferrari bosses during his F1 career and is well placed to explain the difference in approach of Vasseur to his predecessors. “He definitely changed the way we are working on different things. Where Fred made the biggest difference is his vision, his overall vision. This, he embedded it into the team and that’s very important.
“I feel that the beauty of Ferrari is the fact that emotionally it’s always intense, but it can also harm us in some ways, especially when tougher times arrive,“ concluded Leclerc.
With this season’s constructors championship practically wrapped up with eleven Grand Prix remaining, Ferrari will not repeat their exciting chase down of McLaren this year. Yet the upgrades brought to the SF-25 in Belgium appear to be working well with both drivers noting the improvements to the car.
2026 will see the biggest regulation reset in Formula One history. New powertrains and all new chassis will debut together and any number of teams could find themselves ahead of the field come the first race weekend in Melbourne. Ferrari continue to develop the mechanical systems on the car which will have some crossover with their 2026 challenger.
HUGE Mick Schumacher update
Schumacher to Indycar – Mick Schumacher has been out of Formula One now for three seasons. He debuted with Haas F1 in 2021 alongside Russian driver Nikita Maxepin. Yet the season was a disaster for the American owned team as neither driver were able to score a single point.
Come 2022 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw the son of a Russian oligarch banned from competing in international sporting competition and so Haas recalled their previous driver Kevin Magnussen.
This recruitment appeared to rejuvenate the team, with the Danish driver early scoring points in Bahrain with a strong fifth place finish and Magnussen was in the points again next time out in Saudi Arabia and in round four at the Emilia-Romagne Grand Prix…. 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.
