There is always tumult at Ferrari and it continued in a cryptic demand from Lewis Hamilton in the humid Kuala Lumpur paddock to change the Scuderia’s hierarchy.
Yes, the seven-time world champion backed his beleaguered team principal Fred Vasseur as the ‘right guy’ to lead Ferrari amid speculation that former Red Bull boss Christian Horner might take over.
Hamilton did not elaborate on what changes he wanted to see, but his comments were hardly an overwhelming vote of confidence in the organisation he joined last season on £80million a year in search of his eighth world title.
His call for a revamp came ahead of this Sunday’s ‘Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia’, a race relocated to the Sepang circuit, an hour’s drive from the host country’s capital, after war in the Middle East intervened on plans.
It also followed an unprecedented media conference on Tuesday in which Ferrari’s communications director Maria Conti issued a vote of confidence in Vasseur after Horner expressed his respect for the team in a recent interview.
Frenchman Vasseur works under chairman John Elkann, the 50-year-old grandson of Gianni Agnelli, and chief executive Benedetto Vigna, 57. Was Hamilton aiming his arrow at them? He declined to elaborate.
As for Vasseur, he moved to Ferrari in 2023 but has failed to deliver championship success, with their disappointing result at last month’s Italian Grand Prix – in which Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc crashed into each other – represented a major dent in his standing.
Lewis Hamilton appeared to make a cryptic demand that Ferrari change the team’s hierarchy
The seven-time world champion did, however, reiterate his support for under-fire boss Fred Vasseur
Hamilton referenced the structure at his previous employees Mercedes when he said: ‘There are changes that I would make, but I am not going to talk about what those are. Toto (Wolff) is in a different position (at Mercedes, where he owns the team) from Fred (an employee). The structure is a lot different.
‘And that’s all I want to say about it really.’
‘Structure is very important and so is stability and everyone rowing in the same direction is key in any business.
‘Fred has my full backing.
‘You would have to ask Fred what the backing does for him. I don’t know how much it changes things.
‘There often seems to be a lot of focus on one individual and one role here.
‘Fred is a fantastic leader, and he really is the guy to take this team in the right direction.
‘However, there is a structure that has been there for some time and whether or not that needs looking at moving forwards? There are people above Fred, and it is not about one person.
‘Fred has led the team and helped make changes to get us to second in the constructors’ championship, which is a huge step from last year, and our deficit at the moment is only on the engine.
‘We lose four to six tenths on the straights because of power. They are aware of that and they are working extremely hard to fix that. For me it is frustrating to see all the negativity.
‘You see other teams making mistakes and no-one says too much about it. We make the same mistakes and are not perfect – and we know we are not – but it is 10 times worse for some reason for Ferrari. But that is also to be expected because it is the best brand here and the most iconic by far.’
Hamilton is the nearest non-Mercedes driver to championship leader Kimi Antonelli, yet 103 points back with eight races remaining heading into ‘Bahrain away from home’.
