Ferrari's President gives his blessing? 'It's the beginning of the end for Vasseur'

21:13, 22 Jun

byNorberto Mujica

Rumours surrounding Frederic Vasseur's exit from Ferrari have begun swirling as of late. Now it seems that where there's smoke there's fire, and the Frenchman's position at the Scuderia is indeed under pressure.

At least that's what F1 Insider's journalist Ralph Bach stated in the German outlet's Youtube channel.

“I think he has a real problem. Normally, you don’t have to take every story that circulates on the internet seriously, but in this case, if you know the background at Ferrari and the politics at Fiat," it's a whole different scenario.

“Corriere della Sera and Gazzetta dello Sport released this story almost at the same time, that something was happening, that there were already other candidates as replacements and that the big Fiat boss and Ferrari president John Elkann is already talking to people who could and would have been a replacement."

Frederic Vasseur's position has been under fire by Italian media as of late.

'Elkann knew of the rumours and did nothing to stop them'

According to Bach, Elkann, current Ferrari chairman and CEO of Exor, the parent company that controls Stellantis which includes Fiat, who the German states owns stocks in both of the Italian journals, gave his blessing for the stories surrounding Vasseur's potential exit from the Scuderia to be published.

“If it hadn’t been for these two newspapers, you would say, yes, these are only rumours. But from my own experiences, I know that Fiat is also a shareholder in the publishing house that publishes these newspapers."

“That means that if they write a story like that, they must check with the publisher. The publisher will then talk to John Elkann, who wants to do this and that, what do you think, and it’s like a blessing."

“That’s the problem, that it could mean something. I’m quite sure that Elkann found out about this story beforehand and didn’t stop it."

“The message is that he’s under pressure, he is being watched by John Elkann, who is looking for a successor but is not quite there yet, but it is the beginning of the end, you could say," concluded Bach.

In recent times, Sky Sports analyst Martin Brundle has come in the defense of the Frenchman. However, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher has already dubbed a potential candidate to replace Vasseur amidst the rumours that point to his exit.