Vasseur accused of acting like an 'outside observer' as Ferrari pressure turns to Elkann

Ferrari got little out of Interlagos. Charles Leclerc finished eighth and Lewis Hamilton ninth. Before the weekend, Vasseur had brought the two drivers together for a private meeting to settle the tensions left over from Mexico. After the race, he put Ferrari's struggles down to tyre pressures but some Italian commentators were not convinced by either.

Terruzzi made his comments on his podcast Terruzzi Racconta, where he discussed the race with Stefano Nicoli and Allievi. His main charge is that Vasseur behaves as though Ferrari's problems are someone else's.

Terruzzi also criticised how Vasseur talks to the media. "He never makes an impact. There's never a statement before or after the race worth using," he said. He pointed to Vasseur's verdict on Interlagos: "Yesterday he simply said something was missing. Those two were outside the points for three-quarters of the race, drifting in absolute limbo."

Allievi went further. On the podcast he reminded listeners how much control the Frenchman has had at Maranello, saying: "He's been there for four years, he has all the power, he took the drivers, he took what he wanted." In his view, Vasseur built the team the way he wanted, so he has to answer for its results.

Allievi also compared Vasseur with Toto Wolff. As quoted by Virgilio Sport, he said the Mercedes boss had "taken Ferrari's cast-offs and made them win", which was a reference to Italian engineers who used to work at Maranello. He also noted that Wolff had let Loïc Serra go, calling Serra the best person to join Ferrari in recent years. Then, in a separate column for FormulaPassion, Allievi addressed the people above Vasseur directly, saying: "What are you waiting for to finally intervene?" That puts the focus on Ferrari's corporate leadership, including chairman John Elkann.

This is not the first time Vasseur's position has been questioned. Ferrari gave him a new multi-year contract in July 2025. That October, after media reports that Ferrari had held talks with Christian Horner, Elkann said in a statement: "I want to express our full confidence in our team principal, Fred Vasseur, and in the work he is carrying out together with all our colleagues at Scuderia Ferrari."

Nicoli agreed with his colleagues and said one meeting in Brazil could never have been enough. "These two have been against each other from the first day they found themselves at Ferrari," he said, adding that it was a problem "Vasseur and the others had to solve from the start of 2025". Max Verstappen thinks the problem started with the driver choice itself. "If I were a team principal or had my own team, I would never take the top two drivers," he said.