By: In recent days, a number of articles have focused on Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur, chiefly examining his leadership style and an alleged growing sense of dissatisfaction with his management of the team.
Specifically, the main criticism levelled at the French manager concerns his absence from Maranello—indeed, an alleged allergy to Ferrari’s headquarters—which would leave the team without leadership and decision-making support.
At the same time, he has been accused of behaving like an absolute leader—overbearing and arrogant—apparently causing resentment among a section of the team and creating an internal rift.
Is his absence from Maranello a problem?
Of these claims, the first is particularly striking because it evokes a scenario of absence, almost of disinterest.
It therefore deserves careful consideration, without necessarily seeking to defend Vasseur, who certainly does not need court-appointed lawyers.
Among other things, the role of team principal requires being close to the team at the track and being the first person in front of the media, in both the good and bad moments of a race weekend.
With a calendar expanded to 24 races, held almost continuously from March to December and across every continent, the idea of a team principal being present at the factory is rather outdated.
The presence of a team’s most senior figure can take different forms: through delegation to people of the utmost trust and proven ability, organisation, and the creation of a solid, well-oiled structure.
Vasseur clearly still has several aspects of the team’s reorganisation to address; otherwise, we would be talking about Ferrari as a winning team ready to challenge for the title, which has not yet happened.
Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes, attends every single race. His absences make the news, but Mercedes is undeniably a successful organisation.
A lazy criticism.
If the point is that Vasseur, through his absence from Maranello, struggles to delegate and insists on making every decision despite being unable to assess every aspect physically and in detail, then the problem is extremely serious and the criticism strikes a raw nerve.
However, highlighting his absence from Maranello as an allergy to the headquarters and his main failing seems a rather lazy and superficial criticism, incapable of getting to the heart of the problem with the aim of overcoming it.
Cover photo x.com
Internal photo x.com
All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Azerbaijan GP 2026
