Last Updated on December 22 2025, 7:49 am

Vasseur’s new claims at the Ferrari festive bash – ’Tis the season to be jolly’ and the Ferrari Formula One team have their very own Farther Christmas in their rotund red clad team principal, Fred Vasseur. The boss of the Scuderia cuts a different jib from many of his predecessors, as he chortles his way through the FIA approved press conferences, its not a huge jump of the imagination to see him with a white beard and a sack of presents.

The festive bash in Maranello was instituted by none other than Enzo Ferrari himself and the tradition continues today. Fans, mechanics and the press are invited to the Ferrari do the week before Christmas with the back drop behind them of the Fiorano track.

The big screen behold the stage ran a newsreel type show, with highlights of Ferrari’s 2025 season running on a loop. Although the video makers were challenged in terms of the content, given the highlights of the year for Ferrari were numbered.

 

 

Vasseur resorts to platitudes

First up is Lewis Hamilton’s pole and win in the Chinese Sprint which consumes an inordinate amount of time as the replays and slo mo’s seem almost endless. Next up are the Ferrari best pit stop times together with several overtakes before Charles Leclerc’s seven podiums are woven into the montage.

Pierro Ferrari is front and centre donning an elegant blue jacket and his beaming smiles almost betray the desperate nature of the season Ferrari have just endured. This time last year, Vasseur proudly announced to the assembled crowd that the team were building a completely new car for 2055, with “99% of the parts new.”

Yet the project as pretty much abandoned come April this year as the team realised their prototype racing machine was fundamentally flawed. Having closed down McLaren from a 74 point lead to just 14 points over the final six rounds of 2024, hopes in Maranello were high for a triumphant year. Yet the double disqualification in the Chinese Grand Prix delivered a damming verdict in that the team’s decision to switch to an unfamiliar suspension layout was a spectacular fail.

Vasseur admits this incident was crushing for the team to take and that Ferrari now had their “backs to the wall” which he claims cost them dear for around a third of the championship. “Small details can make a difference,” was apparently the learning Ferrari took from Shanghai, but unfortunately there were few “small details” on the positive side throughout the year.

“Good things” reported about Red Bull 2026 powertrain

 

 

 

Team boss reasserts a poor start for Ferrari in 2026 is not terminal

The team boss is seen chuckling away, although he looks weary after a season long of being under the microscope. This year there are no bold proclamations about Ferrari’s progress for 2026 and little is made of the official launch of the 2026 challenger on January 23rd.

Fred Vasseur launches into a narrative he has been developing across the final few race weekends of 2025. “Whoever wins the first GP in Melbourne will not necessarily be champion. With such a fundamental revolution [of the technical regulations] the learning curve will be very great ad everything will depend on the team’s ability to bring swift upgrades.”

A witty Italian F1 journalists quips, ‘you’ve had no practice at that this year,’ before technical director Loic Serra takes centre stage. “It will be a journey into the unknown,” he declares. Although each year is the same for Ferrari with the exception they do known a championship trophy is unlikely to come their way again. 

Serra reveals there is excitement within the Ferrari team in the face of the immense challenge ahead. He further backs Vasseur’s propaganda of ‘don’t judge us week 1 and 2,’ because “at the Barcelona tests we will understand how each team has interpreted the rules and it will be only the beginning.”

Verstappen provides an account of his meeting with Wolff in Sardinia

 

 

 

Vasseur manages expectations

This is not a Ferrari party where the team is brimming with confidence clearly. ‘If perchance we come last in Melbourne, its only the beginning,’ is the message coming loud and clear. But the sarcastic journo again mutters under his breath, “The beginning of what?”

Vasseur admits he has taken a couple of ‘learnings’ from Ferrari’s year of woe. The first being the decision to halt all development of the aero side of the SF-25. “It was a tough choice to stop after 5-6 races, I still think it was right. But I underestimated the impact it had on every member of the team, including the drivers. And also on me.”

Clearly Fred hasn’t quite swallowed the bitter pill completely, given his claim the decision remained the correct one – which Red Bull alone proved to be ridiculous. Ferrari limped across the line towards the end of the season, and even favoured son Charles Leclerc was unable to extend his run of podiums from Brazil to Abu Dhabi.

Alonso teases with a vision of his third championship

 

 

 

Hamilton excused

The second admission of guilt from Vasseur concerns his mega star driver signing, seven times champion Lewis Hamilton. “I underestimated the extent of change, for 20 years he has been linked to the Mercedes world. For him everything was different: culture, methods, software, components, people. And if you’re not always at the top in every area you leave tenths on the table, the difference between a 5th and a 15th place this year was minimal.”

The paradox of the situation is completely missed by the jolly Ferrari boss. Hamilton was hired to help Ferrari win again, their last championship being back in 2008. But in fact its Ferrari who need to pull out the stops to help Lewis once again claim the top step of the podium, a mission not so easy for the 41 year old.

“We have to improve the collaboration, he has to try to get more out of the machine he has. Every detail counts. It’s also about understanding each other better, with the other side of the garage we get to know each other better, to know what Lewis needs, what he wants. I also have to understand what he wants to have.”

Why the writing is on the wall for Russell from Wolff

 

 

 

Vaster evasive over Hamilton’s demand for personnel changes

Clearly Fred has not seen the copious interviews Hamilton has done where he has spoken of his dossiers submitted to the Ferrari management which online a path towards success. In Abu Dhabi Hamilton was categoric, there needed to be personnel changes for 2026 and when pressed on whether certain people should remain in situe, he replied: “Absolutely not.”

With apparently every option on the table for Ferrari to assist Hamilton to winning ways once again, the inevitable question was asked of Vasseur about Hamilton’s engineer, Riccardo Adami, and whether he will remain in his role after a stormy season with his new driver. 

“We evaluate all options,” responds Vasseur. This was the antithesis of the festive Maranello bash in 2024, where bold promises were made and expectations were high. The 2025 Ferrari Christmas celebrations were about managing expectations for next season and dodging any categoric statements over how the team would re-organise itself as per the ‘Hamilton files.’

 

 

 

F1 row erupting over 2026 regulation loophole

There was Williams active suspension in the 1990’s, Renault’s electronic gismos in the mid naughties, the double diffuser of the Brawn car and off throttle blowing by Red Bull and Renault. All loopholes in the regulation which a single team managed to exploit to win championships.

Now with the biggest set of technical regulations coming in the history of F1, another loophole is likely to cause a paddock row and a potential protest from certain teams come the season opener in Australia.

The grey area some manufacturers of the powertrains are seeking to exploit is over the new compression ratios for the internal combustion engine specified by the FIA…. READ MORE