As FormulaUno.it reports, the pressure cooker at Maranello is bubbling over once again. When results fall short and expectations shatter, the hunt for a scapegoat is an old ritual. Baku proved to be a brutal cocktail for the Scuderia, featuring the slow corners and long straights that the technical package simply dislikes.
Now, Fred Vasseur finds himself surrounded by noise about his future, amplified heavily by none other than Christian Horner. The former Red Bull team principal made no secret of his admiration for Ferrari, calling it his dream and a sleeping giant of Formula 1. Naturally, that public availability set off a frenzy of theories regarding a severance package for the Frenchman. But is the team principal truly the sole root of the lack of concrete results?
To absolve Vasseur completely would be entirely wrong. Having led the team since 2023, he has had three and a half seasons to shape the organization, pick his people, and steer the technical direction. The team's trajectory is tied to his leadership, especially following the difficult campaign of 2025. Yet it is just as hard to ignore the graveyard of leadership that came before him. Since the departure of the Todt era, Stefano Domenicali, Marco Mattiacci, Maurizio Arrivabene, Mattia Binotto, and finally Vasseur have all taken the helm. Philosophies changed, regulations shifted, and directors came and went, but the championship drought stretching back to the drivers' title in 2007 and constructors' crown in 2008 remained unbroken.
That is why reducing the Horner situation to a simple duel misses the point. Horner commands enormous weight, but what Ferrari would he actually walk into, and what autonomy would he truly have? Vasseur brought in trusted figures like Loic Serra, Franck Sanchez, and D’Ambrosio, while easing out heavy departures like Mekies, Xavi Marcos, and Rueda. Swapping the nameplate on the office door does not automatically fix what happens behind it.
In Baku, Vasseur shed his usual diplomatic shell. Pointing out that Horner is simply looking for work, the Frenchman admitted the team is operating without the necessary serenity. It is frustrating, he noted, when half the questions are about Horner rather than racing. Yet while Lewis Hamilton offered affirmation when asked if Vasseur is still the right man, there has been no roaring public defense from the drivers akin to the backing seen in Canada in 2025, where Charles Leclerc and Hamilton rallied fiercely behind him ahead of his multi-year contract renewal.
Crucially, the corporate voice of Ferrari is absent. A firm statement from the company reaffirming the trust declared at the time of his renewal would instantly extinguish the noise. Right now, there are no public elements pointing to early exits or active talks with Horner. But silence speaks volumes. It may mean the team simply refuses to feed the rumor mill, or it may signal an unwillingness to lock down a position the ownership wishes to evaluate on results. Vasseur is certainly not untouchable, and performance remains the ultimate metric. But as nearly twenty years of history show, pinning every failure on the team principal is an easy answer to a deeply complex problem.
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