Briatore and Vowles say Vasseur faces unusually harsh media scrutiny

Alpine team principal Flavio Briatore says media attention on Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur intensifies when results dip, and that the volume of coverage makes Vasseur’s job harder than that of other team principals. Williams team principal James Vowles said team principals are generally praised when they succeed and criticised when they fail; he believed that contrast was sharper for Vasseur and his predecessors in the Ferrari role than for team principals elsewhere, while stressing this was an outside impression.

That scrutiny comes amid a dip in Ferrari’s form and speculation about Vasseur’s future. The speculation intensified after Christian Horner recently called the Ferrari team-principal role a “dream job”; Italian media also reported friction between Vasseur and CEO Benedetto Vigna over Lewis Hamilton’s integration into the wider structure. At an emergency press briefing last week, Ferrari’s senior leadership publicly reiterated full confidence in Vasseur and denied that his autonomy was restricted. Vasseur said he remained in daily contact with Vigna and executive chairman John Elkann.

Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna told Motorsport.com that “some time ago,” while dining with Vasseur, he encountered a claim that their relationship was terrible and the two could not stand each other. Vigna said Ferrari’s public clarification had quieted questions about the relationship.

Hamilton’s third place at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on October 4 was Ferrari’s first podium in six races. Vigna said Ferrari still needed to improve its car because rivals had done better.